I don’t think I was very structured in that society and I don’t really believe in personal success, which most Americans believe in.
AI WEIWEIIt’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.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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Dictatorship is a story about death of others who turn out to be you coincidently.
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Liberty is about our rights to question everything.
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I have people working together, doing different things: architecture, art installation, photography, publishing, and curatorial works and design.
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I don’t think [price] reflects if the work is good or bad.A good artist shouldn’t be nervous about that.
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I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
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So for too long Americans take liberty as granted. We think we are in the safe hand, the democracy and the liberty, which is not true. And it can be even getting much worse than today.
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People have a tendency to become elite rather than to care about the general conditions of the society, which makes me sick. It’s an unbearable condition.
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If my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is ‘art’ for?
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If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?
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I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.
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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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This so-called fame or being better off doesn’t really attract me at all.
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Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.
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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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It’s like the mountains, the ocean and the rivers. It has its own geological forms. Societies cannot be flat. But during change, human rights, human dignity and free speech have to be protected. Otherwise, we’ll be going backward.
AI WEIWEI