Ai Weiwei Quotes, School Quotes, Media Quotes

The idea to use backpacks came from my visit to Sichuan after the earthquake in May 2008. During the earthquake many schools collapsed. Thousands of young students lost their lives, and you could see bags and study material everywhere. Then you realize individual life, media, and the lives of the students are serving very different purposes. The lives of the students disappeared within the state propaganda, and very soon everybody will forget everything.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , School Quotes , Media Quotes

Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what's on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Voice Quotes , Mind Quotes

My mother became much older when I came out (ed's note: of detention). She had problems with her hearing and high blood pressure. But they still support me.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Mother Quotes , Blood Quotes

My situation gives me certain ideas about beauty or the excitement of life, but that doesn't mean other people can necessarily appreciate it.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Mean Quotes , Ideas Quotes

For those actors and directors who produce films which are always about the old kingdom or about heroes, you know about the fantasies related to the classics, but there is no real discussion about today's life and no discussion of the real conditions - which is really sickening. They've become part of a conspiracy, collaborators of the crime, which is lying to the general public and trying to hide the kind of criminal acts happening in many cases.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Lying Quotes , Real Quotes

We live in changing times, and many people experience the challenges that come with it. In the face of uncertain futures, no one will know what to expect.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , People Quotes , Challenges Quotes

Mass production is nothing new. Weren't cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?... Paintings can be painted with the left hand, the right hand, someone else's hand, or many people's hands. The scale of production is irrelevant to its content.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Hands Quotes , Pyramids Quotes

It's really rubbish that some kind of "technical" learning means you will be a better person because you know this skill better.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Mean Quotes , Skills Quotes

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Past Quotes , Desire Quotes

Because Chinese art is booming, it legitimizes this profession.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Art Quotes , Chinese Quotes

I lived there [ in New York City] as an artist, but never as a Chinese artist.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , New York Quotes , Artist Quotes

The demand for individual freedom leads us to different realms, and it enables us to participate in social events.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Different Quotes , Demand Quotes

During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Moon Quotes

I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Believe Quotes , Thinking Quotes

The world is sphere, has no East or West.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , East Quotes , World Quotes

How to become a really modern society when today we are so - as a human being, we feel so powerful. We have high technology and a superb way of controlling our life. And at the same time, in many ways we are so primitive. We are not on - even just a step away from the most brutal and primitive crudity. To be very crude on those issues, which is always challenges and we always have to look at the situation like a mirror, to draw some understanding.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Powerful Quotes , Technology Quotes

It doesn't matter where I am - China will stay in me. I don't know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Matter Quotes , Limits Quotes

Art should live in the heart of the people. Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don't think art is elite or mysterious.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Art Quotes , Thinking Quotes

It [success] is really by mistake.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Art Quotes , Fighting Quotes