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.
AI WEIWEII have people working together, doing different things: architecture, art installation, photography, publishing, and curatorial works and design.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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You only have temporary curiosity, amusement, and challenges, but that does not necessarily mean you are really convinced that it’s necessary or that it’s not even worth to do it.
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I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat.
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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.
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We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.
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If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.
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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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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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I deal with students every day – from China, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And I’ve noticed that the Chinese students are the least trained in having a sense of aesthetics.
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I was in the most restricted prison in China, the most tough. The design of the prison is modeled for internal crimes of the Communist party, so it’s like a mafia family’s law. It’s independent to the law this nation openly applies.
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Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.
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Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.
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What is important is that we actively express our thoughts and wishes, in every realm that we can access.
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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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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.
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We’re different, and you’re dangerous.” That kind of thinking stops human, civilized evolution. It’s dangerous to create that kind of tension.
AI WEIWEI