China is at a different stage of development, human rights are violated here much more often. And still, we see improvements even here.
AI WEIWEIIt 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.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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A nation like China has become one of the biggest production fields for exporting cheap labor, which also re-questions our history and past, re-questions human desire, and the human illusions of the past.
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We never really see the global situation as a total situation. Today’s political leaders are still lacking of the vision.
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I loved New York — every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong — visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.
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[Cultural departments] don’t care about culture. Maybe they’re the furthest from the people who understand culture.
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I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.
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The project or a few ideas which are not finished or if there are possible directions and what will lead into another game. It’s always like setting up some kind of game you can continuously play.
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A society is healthy only when it allows its members to discuss their thoughts openly. This is also the only way that a society can gather consensus, let everyone express his or her wish, and foster creativity.
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I don’t belong to a working system. They only select people if you belong to one so you can be controlled.
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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.
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Hopefully, other successes aren’t like me. It carries much more meaning to other people; my success story is irrelevant. It doesn’t make any sense.
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Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.
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And who is going to win the competition if U.S. cannot hold a strong ideology? And even the U.S. would’ve lost the ground to win.
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Maybe being powerful means to be fragile.
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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.
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Mass production is nothing new. Weren’t cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?
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