Ай Вэйвэй цитаты

„Я постоянно фотографирую. В мире происходит великое множество вещей, которые стоят того, чтобы взглянуть на них дважды.“

„Настоящее искусство рождается в повседневности.“

„Поиск свободы — это основа человеческой природы.“

„Мне кажется порочной идея Олимпиады. Измерять национальный престиж золотыми медалями — это как измерять мужскую потенцию количеством выпитой виагры.“

„В Китае есть подразделение — кажется, оно называется, «Управление 608», — сотрудники которого следят за людьми самых разных категорий. Я для них важная цель. Они не просто прослушивают мой телефон, проверяют почту и устанавливают камеры везде, где я регулярно появляюсь, — они следуют за мной, даже если я гуляю с сыном в парке.“

„Всё на свете искусство и всё на свете политика.“

„Вчитайтесь в историю любого героя: герой не станет героем, пока не появится монстр.“

„В китайском языке 140 знаков хватит и для того, чтобы соблазнить девушку, и для того, чтобы написать Конституцию.“

„Тоталитарное общество способно создать все, что угодно — кроме страсти и воображения.“

„В Китае все устроено так, что если никто не говорит «нет», это можно воспринимать как «да». Но нет никакой гарантии, что это «да» кто-то одобрил.“

„Из всех уличных видов спорта самый лучший — это швыряние камней в зазнавшуюся власть.“

„Моя страна напоминает мне бегуна, который показывает рекордную скорость, но у которого застарелые проблемы с сердцем.“

“Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.”

“To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.”

“The great success of this system is that it makes the general public afraid of taking responsibility, afraid of taking a position or giving a definite answer, or even of making mistakes.”

“But every penny they borrowed or made from China has really come as a result of how this nation sacrificed everybody’s rights. With globalization and the Internet, we all know it.”

“I don’t see myself as a dissident artist. I see them as a dissident government!”

“I have no sense of why I lost my freedom and if you do not know how you lost something, how can you protect it?”

“The people who control culture in China have no culture.”

“You’re in total isolation. And you don’t know how long you’re going to be there, but you truly believe they can do anything to you. There’s no way to even question it. You’re not protected by anything. Why am I here? Your mind is very uncertain of time. You become like mad. It’s very hard for anyone. Even for people who have strong beliefs.”

“The language of communication will always need to be renewed.”

“I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.”

“Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.”

“A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.”

“I don’t know about five years from now. I have no plans for that. Maybe I’ll be forgotten by then.”

“I lost all connection with the outside world and was immersed in a world of darkness. I was scared that my existence would fade silently. No one knew where I was, and no one would ever know. I was just like a small soybean—once fallen to the ground, it rolls into a crack in the corner. Being unable to make any sounds, it will forever be forgotten.”

“In China, there is a long history of the government not revealing information, so it’s difficult for the Chinese people to ever know the truth. It is vital that we try to bring that truth to life.”

“A society that has no ideals, that discards the principles of humanitarianism, that abandons the fundamental rights and dignity of humanity, can only survive by denying truth, fairness and justice.”

“We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.”

“Writers, artists, and commentators on websites are detained or thrown into jail when they reflect on democracy, opening up, reform and reason. This is the reality of China.”

“If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.”

“[My family] suffer so much. My mother was much older when I came out [of detention]. She had problems with her hearing and high blood pressure. But they still support me. When you make somebody disappear and you don’t announce it to the family, what is this? You make people desperate and bring them close to death. If our cat or dog is lost, it makes us desperately want to know where it is—so for humans disappearing, you can barely imagine the pain. What kind of society is this? If a society cannot even support somebody like me, then people ask: Who is under protection, then? That’s why there is such support for me. It is not because I am so beautiful or so charming. People feel, This guy is fighting for us.”

“It is better to have a retarded president who respects human values than a clever government without human values.”

“Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.”

“You see a Party system that crushes down anybody who [has] different opinions, who has different ideas in their mind. Simply to have different opinions can cost someone their life. They can be put in jail, they can be silenced, and they can [disappear]. And the other people would take it, not giving support.”

“On the Internet, people do not know each other, they don’t have common leaders, sometimes not even a common political goal. But they come together on certain issues. I think that is a miracle. It never happened in the past. Without the Internet, I would not even be Ai Weiwei today. I would just be an artist somewhere doing my shows.”

“The Chinese [government] only superficially speaks the language of the international community.”

“They just don’t trust people. They don’t trust individuals, they don’t trust any change that should serve and benefit people, and they try to stop it.”

“Today China and the world will meet again. People will see that the planet is now smaller than at any time in history, that mankind should bid farewell to arrogance and indifference, to ignorance and discrimination, and understand that we share the same small piece of land. It will be a time to rediscover each other, to share what is good in life, to look each other in the eye and link all ten fingers.”

“You can see China still cannot offer any real value to the world except as cheap labor, manufacturer, and its own so-called stability. Besides that, I don’t see any creative values and creative mind or thinking [that] can be announced from China. So this is the struggle China has to face in the next decades.”

“I always have an attitude. Even if there are no plans, I have an attitude. Perhaps I answered imprecisely before, saying that I am just a person. I am actually a person with an attitude.”