I don’t personally feel any association with a kind of culture related to state, or culture related to power, which I think is always disgusting.
AI WEIWEIToday, the general masses in this society are in this political-social condition that really encourages people to become rich and become a star and be unique.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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In China, we don’t have any contemporary art museums. Until a few years ago, we didn’t even have a gallery.
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Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.
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Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.
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There’s no such thing as “fixed” culture. China is also becoming more global. Its problems are becoming international problems, becoming German problems, becoming American problems.
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They see how dramatic U.S. has to be put this kind of shame on its own – cannot handle the situation. Or show such a difficulty with this liberal ideas. Men or women created equal. And to defend those very essential ideas.
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If people are being abused or even killed during an arrest, this is highly disturbing.
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I have people working together, doing different things: architecture, art installation, photography, publishing, and curatorial works and design.
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But personally, I don’t think my work and my understanding of art is so much related to being Chinese, but the character of that. Maybe it’s beyond my own consciousness.
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Now you have the equal opportunity to equip yourself through information and knowledge and express yourself as an independent mind.
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Technology is a liberation. I think the information age probably is the best thing to happen to the human race in human evolution.
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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
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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.
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Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.
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They’ve become part of a conspiracy, collaborators of the crime, which is lying to the general public and trying to hide the kind of criminal acts happening in many cases.
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To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
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There are many cases and layers of racist behavior in the US – from police treatment to the issues of education and job opportunities. In America, however, such cases are being discussed publically.
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I deal with students every day – from China, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And I’ve noticed that the Chinese students are the least trained in having a sense of aesthetics.
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Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.
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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.
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When human beings are scared and feel everything is exposed to the government, we will censor ourselves from free thinking. That’s dangerous for human development.
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You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of.
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I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.
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Life is much more interesting when you make a little bit of effort.
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China restricts the society’s freedom of speech. The Communist Party imposes these limits because it lacks confidence towards the future and has no ideals.
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I think it’s more important to show your work to the public.
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