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.
AI WEIWEI[Cultural departments] don’t care about culture. Maybe they’re the furthest from the people who understand culture.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
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Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one’s imagination – perhaps more importantly – creativity is the power to act.
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The tragic reality of today is reflected in the true plight of our spiritual existence. We are spineless and cannot stand straight.
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I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.
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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
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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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If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?
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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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I think the pearls – one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl – really show a kind of [society] condition.
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If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger.
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[Museums] all belongs to the cultural department, which is the biggest cultural department in the world.
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Today, the general masses in this society are in this political-social condition that really encourages people to become rich and become a star and be unique.
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Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market.
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The museums used to be exhibition halls for government propaganda, and now every city wants to build a museum.
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The IT people who have made such an effort to know and understand computer technology. They are frustrated that you cannot use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in China. They are the first to recognize that the situation is terrible.
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I think China is laughing about the results of the presidential elections. China, Russia, they all laugh about it.
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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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[Cultural departments] don’t care about culture. Maybe they’re the furthest from the people who understand culture.
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A lot of the time [in the U.S.], I was thinking about how spending time is always questionable or is always the biggest obstacle in my life.
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If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain
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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 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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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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A small act is worth a million thoughts.
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[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.
AI WEIWEI