Uli Sigg has led a remarkably diverse career, spanning law, journalism, global corporate leadership, diplomacy, venture capital, and art. After earning a doctorate in law from the University of Zurich in 1976, he worked as a journalist and later held executive roles in industry and on international corporate boards. He also served as the Swiss ambassador to China, North Korea, and Mongolia.
Throughout more than 45 years of engagement with the People’s Republic of China, two of Sigg’s contributions stand out as historically significant: In 1980, he helped establish the first industrial joint venture between China and the outside world—an initiative that marked the beginning of the PRC’s globalization process.
Simultaneously, he began building a singular collection of Chinese contemporary art, chronicling its development from the 1970s to the present. In a landmark gesture, he later repatriated 1,500 works from the collection to China, donating them to the M+ Museum in Hong Kong.
In 1997, Sigg founded the Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA), which has since evolved into the SIGG PRIZE, along with the Chinese Contemporary Art Critic Award.
He currently serves on the M+ Museum Board, the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the International Advisory Council of the Tate Gallery in London, and the Board of the Kunstmuseum Zürich.
Whitewall spoke with Uli Sigg about his most recent acquisition, his advice for aspiring collectors, and how collecting art is, ultimately, a journey of self-discovery.
Living Collection, M+ Lounge, Photo by Winnie Yeung, © Visual Voices, Courtesy of M+.
WHITEWALL: Can you share a recent acquisition you’re excited about?
ULI SIGG: It is a two channel video piece by a young female Chinese artist Chongyan Liu. You are squeezed between two large video screens showing a computer-generated ocean, and you are then run over by an aircraft carrier and later by a tsunami wave—one screen showing the approach and the other showing the ebbing away…
A pretty impressive experience and adequate to today’s world…
“It is a two channel video piece by a young female Chinese artist Chongyan Liu,”
—Uli Sigg
WW: What is your advice for aspiring collectors, just getting started?
US: For a young collector to make the right choices, it is a twofold trajectory one should not separate: a journey into art and a journey to oneself.
“For a young collector to make the right choices, it is a twofold trajectory one should not separate: a journey into art and a journey to oneself,”
Uli Sigg
A journey into art by grasping every opportunity of seeing, reading, discussing, digesting art (good and bad), to shape one’s apprehension. And a journey to getting to know oneself, just as needed and useful beyond collecting. Why do I like some things and why do I hate others? Why do some works resonate with me? And who am I, really…
What is M+ Museum?
Living Collection, M+ Lounge, Photo by DanLeung; Courtesy of M+.
M+ is Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture. Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK), it is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The landmark M+ building on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbourfront was designed by the world-renowned architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup. It spans a total floor area of 65,000 square metres, featuring thirty-three galleries alongside a Learning Hub, Moving Image Centre, Research Centre, and Roof Garden, among other event and programming spaces. The M+ Facade is one of the largest LED screens in the world, showcasing commissioned artworks on the Hong Kong skyline every evening.
The museum stewards a multidisciplinary permanent collection that includes objects from regions across Asia and beyond. A highlight is the M+ Sigg Collection, one of the world’s most extensive collections of Chinese contemporary art. Today, M+ is a nexus for researching and presenting contemporary visual culture, inspiring thought and curiosity. – Source
