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Everything is art. Everything is politics.

Ai Weiwei

Maybe [success] is because I’m in China and I’m more open. Maybe it’s my independent behavior, or because I participated in certain projects. I have no idea.
AI WEIWEI

Behavior Certain Country Idea Independent More Open Participate Project
I think to deal with the situation like human crisis, 65 million people being displaced, lost their home, and with such human tragedy, has to make every level of society to be conscious and to be alert about the situation.
AI WEIWEI

Crisis Displaced Home Human Lost Million People Situation Strong Thinking Tragedy
[Shanghai Biennale] has been my attitude for as long as I’ve been practicing art and other cultural-related activities.
AI WEIWEI

Art Attitude Culture Long Practicing Related
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 WEIWEI

Deadly Everything Evil Internet Letting Openness People Thinking Weapon
I’m totally independent. I don’t bear any responsibility to any system.
AI WEIWEI

Bear Independent Responsibility System Totally
I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.
AI WEIWEI

Art Certainty Creative Extend Idea Imagination Thinking
I never felt like a Chinese citizen because I was pushed away at a very young age. My father, a writer, was a national enemy of the Communist Party. He was forbidden to write for 20 years.
AI WEIWEI

Citizen Father Party Pushed Writer Writing Young
The museums used to be exhibition halls for government propaganda, and now every city wants to build a museum.
AI WEIWEI

Country Future Government Museums Past Present Professional Year
Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.
AI WEIWEI

Country Director Future Going Moment Outside Priilied Somehow Time
We are not on – even just a step away from the most brutal and primitive crudity. To be very crude on those issues, which is always challenges and we always have to look at the situation like a mirror, to draw some understanding.
AI WEIWEI

Always Challenge Crude Issue Mirror Primitive Situation Step Understanding
If a master, a wise and experienced man, wields a great weapon, that’s beautiful. He can serve peace with it. But if someone’s emotions are imbalanced, even if he has the best equipment,
AI WEIWEI

Beautiful Experienced Great Man Master Mean Weapon Wield Wise
Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market.
AI WEIWEI

Country Course Easy Good Kind Luxury Made Relative
The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.
AI WEIWEI

Case Constrain Flight Freedom Imprisoned Land Misconception
There’s no single artwork I even want to mention or that I can even really think about it to have any feeling, to be proud of it.
AI WEIWEI

Artwork Feeling Proud Relly Single Think Thinking Want
By participating in the society we live in, we understand our conditions and the way we relate to the world.
AI WEIWEI

Condition Participating Relate Society Understand Way World
I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
AI WEIWEI

Encourage Expressed Idea People Worldview
During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
AI WEIWEI

Detention During Moon Most Thought
Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
AI WEIWEI

Barbie Freedom Modern Speech World
I came back [to Beijing ] because that’s the only time I had an excuse to come back, or otherwise I would never have a reason to come back.
AI WEIWEI

Back Beijing Excuse Otherwise Reason Time
Nowadays, China is experiencing the detrimental effects of such decisions. Its citizens have no creativity.
AI WEIWEI

Citizen Country Creativity Decision Detrimental Effect Experiencing
That’s why I always question this sense. The feeling of home really requires a lot of trust. It requires you to identify with it, which I always find myself very contradictory to.
AI WEIWEI

Contradictory Feeling Home Identity Question Require Sense Trust
It’s like the mountains, the ocean and the rivers. It has its own geological forms. Societies cannot be flat. But during change, human rights, human dignity and free speech have to be protected. Otherwise, we’ll be going backward.
AI WEIWEI

Backward Form Geographical Human Mountain Ocean Protected Right Speech
Even today the borders they’re seeing the physical borders are very different from the political borders. Because all those powers are so connected, and you cannot even see whose interest in what move.
AI WEIWEI

Border Idea Interest Move Own Physical Problem Solving Voter
You need a purpose to express yourself, but that expression is its own purpose.
AI WEIWEI

Express Expression Need Purpose Yourself
This so-called fame or being better off doesn’t really attract me at all.
AI WEIWEI

All Attract Better Called Fame
Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition.
AI WEIWEI

Better Condition Good Guaranteed Life never Safe Use
A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
AI WEIWEI

Fairytale Music Nation Tragedy

Everything is art. Everything is politics.

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Everything is art. Everything is politics.

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