Ai Weiwei: Trending quotes

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Ai Weiwei: 436 quotes39 likes

“No matter how long our politicians order people to sing songs of praise, no matter how many fireworks they launch into the heavens, and no matter how many foreign leaders they embrace, they cannot arouse a genuine mood of joy and celebration among the people.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Happiness Can’t Be Faked, 2008

“I think China is in a chaos now and it could be more chaos. It’s an orderly chaos. It’s a party that ruthlessly violates every human’s basic rights to serve its own purpose.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Digital Activism in China, 2010

“To what degree does it help us to change our life, or even to sense our existence, to really evaluate “why?” I think those questions cannot be escaped. Sometimes in history it’s more hidden; somewhere these can be very personal and individual questions. But in certain times and certain places, your existence has to be associated with other people’s situations. You have to make a reaction to the living conditions. It’s not avoidable. You cannot just be blind about what is happening there. Such is the case in China.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Escape from Propaganda, 2009

“[People] always tell me, “Weiwei, leave the nation, please.” Or “Live longer and watch them die.” Either leave, or be patient and watch how they die. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, The City: Beijing, 2011

“I want people to see their own power.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Meet the Most Interesting Person in China, 2009

“Do they want me to stay? Do they want me to leave? Do they want me to hang myself? To kill myself? What do they want?”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: ‘Shame on Me.’, 2011

“I’ve never planned any part of my career—except being an artist. And I was pushed into that corner because I thought being an artist was the only way to have a little freedom.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Life’s Work: Ai Weiwei, 2012

“I see myself not as a leader but as somebody who initiates things or finds the problem or provokes a discussion. You have to be always ready to engage, willing to participate. When events or history happen, you just have to be aware and respond.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Life’s Work: Ai Weiwei, 2012

“Everything is art. Everything is politics.”

Ai Weiwei

Coonan, Clifford. “ An Artist’s Struggle for Justice in China http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/an-artists-struggle-for-justice-in-china1912352.html.” Independent, February 27, 2010. <br class="br">2010-, 2010

“I came to art because I wanted to escape the other regulations of the society. The whole society is so political. But the irony is that my art becomes more and more political.”

Ai Weiwei

Wines, Michael. “China’s Impolitic Artist, Still Waiting to Be Silenced.” New York Times, November 28, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/world/asia/28weiwei.html?pagewanted=all
2000-09, 2009

“Not an inch of the land belongs to you, but every inch could easily imprison you.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (9:10 a.m. May 21, 2010)
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“The individual under this kind of life, with no rights, has absolutely no power in this land. How can they even ask you for creativity? Or imagination, or courage or passion?”

Ai Weiwei

“ House Arrest in China: Orwell, Kafka, and Ai Weiwei http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2012/04/house-arrest-china.” Economist, April 13, 2012 <br class="br">2010-, 2012

“But censorship by itself doesn’t work. It is, as Mao said, about the pen and the gun.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, China’s Censorship Can Never Defeat the Internet, 2012

“My voice is not for me. Every time I make a sentence I think how many people for how many generations had a voice that no one could hear. At most they will be remembered as numbers; in many cases, even numbers don’t exist.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: 'Every day I think, this will be the day I get taken in again...', 2011

“During my detention, they kept asking me: Ai Weiwei, what is the reason you have become like this today? My answer is: First, I refuse to forget. My parents, my family, their whole generation and my generation all paid a great deal in the struggle for freedom of speech. Many people died just because of one sentence or even one word. Somebody has to take responsibility for that.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: ‘Shame on Me.’, 2011

“What does it matter if China’s economy grows when there are no basic protections for its citizens?”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, An Artist’s Ordeal. 2009

“They have to have an enemy. They have to create you as their enemy in order for them to continue their existence. It’s very ironic.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Ai Weiwei Talks Revolution, Shanghai Studio in New Time Out: HK. http://shanghaiist.com/2011/03/14/ai_weiwei_talks_revolution_shanghai.php” Time Out: Hong Kong, March 14, 2011. <br class="br">2010-, 2011

“To protect the right of expression is the central part of an artist’s activity..... In China many essential rights are lacking, and I wanted to remind people of this.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Who Is Ai Weiwei?, 2009

“Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Gold Is Not the Real Measure of a Nation http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/25/olympics2008.china,” Guardian, August 25, 2008. <br class="br">2000-09, 2008

“My work has always been political, because the choice of being an artist is political in China.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Escape from Propaganda, 2009