The deadly weapon against totalitarian society is openness – doing everything very openly on the Internet, letting people know every detail, any little development. Once it is out there, everybody can make their own judgement.
AI WEIWEIThe importance of elections, transparency, legal procedures, an independent army, and the judicial system is not regarded as highly in China. These core values are the most important evidence of the health of a society, quality of life, and security.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
This is a very general understanding of art in China, that being an artist can make you money and turn you into a star.
AI WEIWEI -
If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.
AI WEIWEI -
In China, we don’t have any contemporary art museums. Until a few years ago, we didn’t even have a gallery.
AI WEIWEI -
They very often just try to cope with their own election, their own popularity, solving the problem or selling the ideas to meet their own voters. By doing that, it creates a great imbalance in terms of making deals or treaty or all those things.
AI WEIWEI -
I think the pearls – one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl – really show a kind of [society] condition.
AI WEIWEI -
Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
AI WEIWEI -
We should use this public sphere and redefine – beyond China’s borders – what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen’s privacy begins.
AI WEIWEI -
The jobs for 7 million university graduates every year, the immense corruption: Even some Western governments would have to scramble to find solutions to such problems.
AI WEIWEI -
For years, I refused to go to any openings, not even my own.
AI WEIWEI -
To give a price to an artwork, no matter how high or low, is always absurd. It’s not something that can be measured by money or by certain numbers.
AI WEIWEI -
The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.
AI WEIWEI -
There isn’t a single Chinese university that can invite me to give a talk. Even though I know there are many students who would like to hear what I have to say.
AI WEIWEI -
In my case, I was stuck there for quite a while. New York is large enough to be a very abstract city, so nobody cares.
AI WEIWEI -
I think Donald Trump should cool down a little bit. To pay more attention to the history. To really understand what U.S.’s value is about. I think, as a president, those things you always have to ask.
AI WEIWEI -
I think it’s quite narrow-minded. There wasn’t much encouragement or opportunities for any artist – not just Chinese artists.
AI WEIWEI