[Cultural departments] don’t care about culture. Maybe they’re the furthest from the people who understand culture.
AI WEIWEIThe motivation is really to say people can find the game of getting involved interesting and find the problem and really have the passion and the enthusiasm to solve it and move forward, but that’s all I know.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.
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The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.
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Now 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.
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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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I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.
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Nationality started as something natural, but we should not be restrained by the old politics that make up these clear lines. It should have its own way of evolving. In some places, it will evolve slower and in others, faster.
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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 never think any place is better than others.
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There’s no single artwork I even want to mention or that I can even really think about it to have any feeling, to be proud of it.
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It’s the place they take you before they give you over to the judicial system. You stay there for a year or two and they make you really suffer to confess everything.
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Stupidity can win for a moment, but it can never really succeed because the nature of humans is to seek freedom. Rulers can delay that freedom, but they cannot stop it.
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I think it’s more important to show your work to the public.
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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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I don’t care if this is a great cultural event or a national symbol. It has nothing to do with me. It deals with the city.
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People who can’t do that don’t get a sense of responsibility. And if you lack a sense of responsibility, you push the blame onto the system.
AI WEIWEI