The fantasy we had with pearls was always so luxurious and unique with a kind of rareness.
AI WEIWEII think art is a very important weapon to achieve human freedom
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
I have people working together, doing different things: architecture, art installation, photography, publishing, and curatorial works and design.
AI WEIWEI -
The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.
AI WEIWEI -
If it’s possible, I will have some noodles in the morning and start talking to people, start to think about a few things in my head.
AI WEIWEI -
Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.
AI WEIWEI -
People have a tendency to become elite rather than to care about the general conditions of the society, which makes me sick. It’s an unbearable condition.
AI WEIWEI -
Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
AI WEIWEI -
I think I’m just a traveler. When you walk across a river and there’s no bridge, you build one. I’m used to having to deal with Chinese Communist ideology.
AI WEIWEI -
I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat.
AI WEIWEI -
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 WEIWEI -
It’s very essential values that we all have to protect. But in Chinese society, people are giving up on protecting these values.
AI WEIWEI -
I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
AI WEIWEI -
I saw [Allen Ginsberg] more as an old man who liked poetry and who had a lot of physical and emotional problems. We liked our time together.
AI WEIWEI -
The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.
AI WEIWEI -
We never really see the global situation as a total situation. Today’s political leaders are still lacking of the vision.
AI WEIWEI -
Nowadays, China is experiencing the detrimental effects of such decisions. Its citizens have no creativity.
AI WEIWEI -
I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
AI WEIWEI -
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 -
You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.
AI WEIWEI -
I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.
AI WEIWEI -
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 -
By participating in the society we live in, we understand our conditions and the way we relate to the world.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
I don’t think [price] reflects if the work is good or bad.A good artist shouldn’t be nervous about that.
AI WEIWEI -
Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
China is at a different stage of development, human rights are violated here much more often. And still, we see improvements even here.
AI WEIWEI