Anything Quote by Ai Weiwei

In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible…

— Ai Weiwei

The deadly weapon against totalitarian society is openness - doing everything very openly on the Internet, letting people know every detail, any little development.…

— Ai Weiwei

I don't think it's worth discussing new directions in the context of Chinese art - there were no old directions, either. Chinese art has…

— Ai Weiwei

Because Chinese art is booming, it legitimizes this profession.

— Ai Weiwei

So-called Chinese art and culture is under control of the Party. They exist to serve the official agenda. I call it fake art and…

— Ai Weiwei

All the rich people collect traditional Chinese art. So it's very natural for Chinese families to still see art as the highest human performance…

— Ai Weiwei

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

— Ai Weiwei

Widespread state control over art and culture has left no room for freedom of expression in the country. For more than 60 years, anyone…

— Ai Weiwei

Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that's the 1980s. New York in the '80s was not so…

— Ai Weiwei

To call yourself a Chinese artist or woman artist or African artist reflects a certain kind of condition. To me, that is not necessary.

— Ai Weiwei

A free society is regarded as one that does not engage, on principle, in attempting to control what people find meaningful, and a totalitarian…

— Michael Polanyi

“Things happen fast, during the time of transition in a totalitarian society.”

— Philip K. Dick