ULI SIGG:

My name is Uli Sigg. I am a collector of Chinese contemporary art.

PRESENTER:

Over the past few decades, Uli has amassed one of the largest collections of Chinese contemporary art in the world, a considerable proportion of which he has since donated to M+. Following his first visit to the country in the late 1970s, it became a personal mission for Uli to chart the vibrant, evolving landscape of Chinese art in a way that no one else was.

This playful piece–Press Conference III by Chinese artist Zhou Tiehai–is from Uli’s collection. In many ways, the themes it considers mirror Uli’s own realisation that the Chinese art landscape was changing; producing makers who could rightly be considered alongside long-dominant Western art traditions.

Uli tells us more about the artist and his work.

ULI SIGG:

Here, he presents us with a truth, in his own mind, which is: Cold War, which was represented by two world powers, is gone, and now it's a multipolar world and there is a place now talking about art for Chinese artists, not just a Western-dominated art world, but a new art world. That's what he intends to say with this funny comment.

At that time, it was a lively scene: good artists, good art, but the outside world simply knew almost nothing about the art from China. So that's what he really analysed very clearly, actually conveying the message that, you know, the Chinese artists are at par with the Western artists, so it's about time that these gatekeepers and the Western-dominated art world understands there is a newcomer to this global art scene.

PRESENTER:

Uli also told us how Zhou Tiehai’s work predicted the future, global role for Chinese artists.

ULI SIGG:

So, he said, that's where the Chinese art will go: it will be commercialised, it will be very important, there will be prizes. So, he, with these works, this series of works, indicates there will be a big role for Chinese artists in the world and there will be also a material type of valorisation of Chinese contemporary art, which will be very different from what it is at the moment of this work, which is [19]96. So actually, his prediction became true. So, he is kind of a visionary, he's a quiet person, but in his heart… he thinks and talks very big.

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