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.
AI WEIWEINow I’ve come to such a mixed culture: America, Europe, South America, Africa. And the politics are changing everywhere all the time and becoming even more unpredictable.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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Maybe being powerful means to be fragile.
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I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it’s very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.
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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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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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Everything is selected by the central government without good judgment or an understanding of culture to make it really safe. They will become nobody to maintain their power and be raised to the next higher level.
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The fantasy we had with pearls was always so luxurious and unique with a kind of rareness.
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[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don’t care about culture.
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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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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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Being an artist is more of a mindset, a way of seeing things; it is no longer so much about producing something.
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In this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.
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I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it’s all we need.
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Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.
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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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There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.
AI WEIWEI