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3 interviews · 10 quotes
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Ai Weiwei is an artist, renowned for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today’s geopolitical world. I spoke to him to learn more about his art.
What 363 conversations with the world's leading thinkers reveal about the creative impulse
Charlotte Mullins is one of the UK’s most respected art critics, writers and broadcasters. She was formerly the arts editor of the Independent on Sunday, the editor of Art Review, the V&A Magazine, Art Quarterly and is…
From the archive
The most vivid character of our time has been the enslavement of society to this profiteering system.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
I'm grateful to be alive during this time. I can't think of a better time than this very moment. Freedom without struggle is an illusion. I love problems. How we deal with problems defines who we are and what values we stand for.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
Without the internet and globalization, Ai Weiwei, as you know him, would not possible. My art comes from those influences and the persistent struggle to understand our time.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
Power is seized with the gun and maintained with the pen. Controlling public opinion through propaganda and misinformation is the most critical task of an authoritarian power.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
Art is necessary for the human mind. Art is about our dreams, fears, and imagination. Art is about everything outside of the system. It is a death sentence for art when it is within the system.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
The strongest characteristic of art is that it belongs to the individual. Art is an expression of individualism and the opposite of oppressive dogma.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
Freedom without struggle is an illusion. I love problems. How we deal with problems defines who we are and what values we stand for.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
Art is necessary for the human mind. Art is about our dreams, fears, and imagination. Art is about everything outside of the system. It is a death sentence for art when it is within the system.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
Power is seized with the gun and maintained with the pen. Controlling public opinion through propaganda and misinformation is the most critical task of an authoritarian power.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
The strongest characteristic of art is that it belongs to the individual. Art is an expression of individualism and the opposite of oppressive dogma.
— Ai WeiweiChinese Artist & Dissident; Prominent Human Rights Activist and Political Critic
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