The pathway of gathering works for the Chinese contemporary art collection, which we see at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art until 30 August 2020 for the first time in Italy, is a story of intercontinental curiosity that evolved into a passion. The exhibition “In front of the collector. Uli Sigg‘s collection of Chinese contemporary art ”, curated by Marcella Beccaria, is the presentation of the prestigious collection recognized as the most important in the world, which, in its complete version, includes about 2,500 works by over 500 artists. Unsurprisingly, much of the true substance of this exhibition is the story of the birth plus development of the collection itself, carefully traced in teliti in the text accompanying the exhibition.
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, director of Castello di Rivoli, comments: “[…] This exhibition of works from the Sigg Collection […] is part of a new important line of museum programming that investigates the relationship between private plus public collections, focusing on the need to make the experience of art more familiar plus accessible, instead of neutralizing it in traditionally impersonal museum containers. While the world asserts plus supports China’s efforts to contain a virus, we, in the field of culture, are doing our best to enable maximum cultural exchange, sharing ideas plus points of view ”.
Following the Open Door Policy statement, Uli Sigg was the first pebisnis to travel to China in 1979 for Schindler. “I came to introduce a model for investment in China for the outside world” – he explains during the meeting in Rivoli. He came to China, feeling, as he says, ignorant in a new cultural context. He thought that through information of Chinese contemporary art, he could discover the real people’s perspectives, not contaminated by politics or finances. “Thanks to my journey through art – says Sigg – I believe I can say that I have seen more China than many Chinese. I collect, but rather than a collector, I prefer to define myself as a researcher ”. Sigg emphasizes that this period wasn’t only the beginning of the open market, but also the beginning of contemporary art in China.