The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern and good intentions.
AI WEIWEIIf my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is ‘art’ for?
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It’s a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don’t know who you are and why you are here.
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A small act is worth a million thoughts.
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To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It’s a very complicated process to do large projects.
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As long as I can communicate, I’m not so lonely. If I cannot travel, or do art, or have company, if they take away all my belongings, it doesn’t matter at all.
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Even if I have hundreds of things to do, the disconnected feeling is still there because it is very hard to find a real purpose of life.
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Everything is art. Everything is politics.
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Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?
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For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political.
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I was an illegal alien for many, many years. I couldn’t move. If I moved I could not even get a visa back.
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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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Man has a tendency to try to give clear reasons to be rational, but often you can see how all those reasons are not convincing and turn out to be a big nonsense.
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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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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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The intention to separate art from politics is itself a very political intention.
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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.
AI WEIWEI