Swiss collector Uli Sigg has first-hand knowledge of Chinese culture through his close links with China since the late 1970s. In 1980, he helped to negotiate the first joint venture between China and a western company (Schindler). From 1995-98 he was Swiss ambassador to Beijing. Together with his wife Rita, Uli Sigg has been collecting Chinese art since the mid-1990s and is something of a pioneer in this field. Having started out purchasing only current works, he soon began extending his collection to include 'historic' avant-garde works of the 1980s and early 1990s.
The present publication is the catalogue of an exhibition of the sigg Collection, which provides a survey of a quarter of a century of Chinese avant-garde art (1979-2004). It is structured into clearly legible themes:
Icons of the 70s vs. Icons of the 80s
Mao and the Cultural Revolution
Power Play
Myths and Legends
Individual vs. Society
Consumerism
Contemporary Life
City vs. Countryside
Tradition Revisited
Chinese Perspectives on Western Art
Writing as Medium
Body as Medium
Brief artist biographies as well as a chronology of the history of contemporary Chinese art (put together by Feng Boyi) are provided.
Chapter Heading/s:
The Multiple Predicaments and Upturns of Chinese Contemporary Art - Weiwei AI
Access to China - Uli Sigg in Conversation with Matthias Frehner
Contemporary Chinese Art and a Declining Culture - Xianting LI
Longing for Paradise, Negotiating with the Real: Looking at the Chinese Art Scene Today - Hanru HOU
Between Scylla and Charybdis: The New Context of Chinese Contemporary Art since 2000 - Li PI
Contemporary Chinese Art: A Market Report - Estelle BORIES
Cultural Partnerships, Maybe More: On the Reception of Contemporary Chinese Art in the West - Bernhard FIBICHER
'Chineseness' — Is there such a thing? - A Letter from Uli Sigg to the Artists Taking Part in Mahjong - and their Responses - Uli SIGG