Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.
AI WEIWEIWe never really see the global situation as a total situation. Today’s political leaders are still lacking of the vision.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who’s like a child.
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Any individual can contribute its own belief. And our society or even our government are made by the people. The people would have the final voice, but it requires each individual to act. If we don’t act, then the result is very clear.
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I never had secure, belonging feelings with this society [in China].
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I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.
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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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Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don’t think art is elite or mysterious. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics.
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A historical property has morals and ethics of the society that created it and it can be revived. What I mean is that we can discover new possibilities from the process of dismantling, transforming, and recreating.
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I lived there [ in New York City] as an artist, but never as a Chinese artist.
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People who can’t do that don’t get a sense of responsibility. And if you lack a sense of responsibility, you push the blame onto the system.
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It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
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I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable – how we decide what is valuable.
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These are nonviolent people who have lost their freedom simply because they expressed their ideas….In truth, they are heroes of our time.
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If I look at it, I would laugh. I don’t know how I became successful.
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The society was so different [in China] – it was a feudalistic society. It didn’t come to a point of industrial revolution until twenty years ago.
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China hasn’t only existed for one day. Now, the whole nation has become richer and it’s become a problem. The problem is universal. The factor is big. Everybody has to rethink the balance of the world and the whole landscape.
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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.
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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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This is a very general understanding of art in China, that being an artist can make you money and turn you into a star.
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If we all say the same thing, then I think the government has to listen. But because no one is saying it, I become singled out, even though what I’m saying is common sense.
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For me, it is OK as long as I can breathe, as long as my heart is pumping, as long as I can express myself.
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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.
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If there’s the right condition, I always want to express the concept or ideas in a very independent way.
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The rest of the world understands little about China’s changes and the possibilities and crises that come with them.
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That’s why the country can’t face up to open competition – unless it resorts to measures like North Korea.
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Everyone of us is a potential convict.
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A clear understanding of such differences will help the rest of the world understand China and all that is happening to the nation.
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