Ai Weiwei on writing his family history in new memoir: "I kind of feel I can disappear anytime"

Chinese contemporary artist and activist Ai Weiwei speaks with Anthony Mason about writing his first memoir, "1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows," and telling the history of China through his own family's story. They discuss his artistic influences, clashes with the Chinese government, and his family's longtime fight against authoritarianism.
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[@Austin8thGenTexan]

Think about 81 days with someone standing there watching you. Think about it. And you may not be there when your mother dies... 😔

[@gh4412]

What a life. Excited to see how his son will do in the future.

[@olafsager6056]

When Ai sees something, the movement of crowds, he is interested in it. He likes it to influence people. It's a form of politics. In that sense, Ai is a strong artist, he wants to be ''party'' of it. He wants to create a participation
I am myself not interested in human movements. I'm interested in the movements of art. How does art come to people? The idea that it could be an accident like the death of many children in the Sichuan earthquake, I do not let this idea pass to me. And to isolate the remains of the building structure, the iron bars, is no art for me either. However, with that he reaches people. Can it ease the grief of those who have lost loved ones? I believe he can. But no art would be needed to take this step. A new '' family '' would be more necessary.
Two things play an important role in Ai's art: size and repetition. Re-application.
It is easy for him to stand behind his own work - after the work is done. Ai knows how to make people work for you, how to make them rich, giving them a meaning. By doing so, he captures his art. Work becomes capital, It's a phenomenon: people who are working on the same thing understand it better. But they will remain employees. The essence of art is, it seems to me to a certain extent, really freedom. But art can easy be deterministic. Knowing this (and he has this knowledge of course), then it is all the more important which 'bondage' we want, which action should be taken.
Art can bind, human beings shouldn't do that.
To a certain extent, I'm not interested in being a refugee. The earth all over is the place that holds us here, holds us captive.
(From my com-museum, hook 44)

[@poobum9857]

the hammer was excellent metaphor !!

[@sggr7708]

ai is the greatest chinese faxist ! of all time ! he is the main representer of the chinese regime ! undercover ! are you all naive ? what this person is playing ??
er hat nichts mit kunst zu tun ! gar nichts ! er ist einfach ein propaganda maennchen !
CHINA is a fascist totalitarian terror regime ! beware of that ! get rid of all fake troll students copying ideas ! stealing them day by day in the name of their state - send them home !

[@wordscapes5690]

One day, China's real heroes will be revered, and the monsters forgotten.

[@sggr7708]

ai is the greatest chinese faxist ! of all time ! he is the main representer of the chinese regime ! undercover ! are you all naive ? what this person is playing ??
er hat nichts mit kunst zu tun ! gar nichts ! er ist einfach ein propaganda maennchen !
CHINA is a fascist totalitarian terror regime ! beware of that ! get rid of all fake troll students copying ideas ! stealing them day by day in the name of their state - send them home !

[@JohnAranita]

Ai Weiwei. Lang Lang. Yo-Yo Ma.