瑞士藝術收藏家助力中國當代藝術走向世界

坦納·塔費爾斯基

In 2019， after a three-year delay， M+， Hong Kongs museum dedicated to Chinese visual culture， opened to the public. It contains a staggering1 collection of art with works by Ai Weiwei， Cao Fei， Zhang Xiaogang， Liu Wei， Wang Guangle， Wang Guangyi， Song Dong， Hai Bo， and more. The former Executive Director， Lars Nittve， sees M+ as the equivalent of New Yorks MoMA or the Centre Pompidou in Paris， in terms of depth and cultural importance.

M+ wouldnt have been possible without Swiss businessman and art collector Uli Sigg， who in 2012 donated and sold 1，510 Chinese contemporary works of art （a portion of his collection） to the museum. Michael Schindhelms 2016 documentary portrait， The Chinese Lives of Uli Sigg， recaps2 Siggs life and how he accumulated his collection—from Social Realism to Cynical Realism and political Pop artworks—to preserve contemporary Chinese art for three decades. In interviews and reiterated3 in the film， Sigg prefers to view himself as “a researcher of China and of Chinese contemporary art who just happened to buy some of the results of his research.”

Segmented into parts， Chinese Lives follows Siggs life in chronological order， starting in 1979， the year that he first went to China as a representative of the Swiss elevator manufacturer， the Schindler Group， which ultimately led to the first joint venture between a Western company and China. The film moves fast at first， giving the impression that the periods covered in the 1970s and 80s are mere backstory. In the 90s， the doc slows down to a steady rhythm， and it is here where Siggs presence in the film returns， as it is the decade when he feverishly4 began to acquire art.

In 1995 Sigg became the Swiss Ambassador to China， which lasted until 1999. He was buying art with an objective eye， one towards preserving culture， and he often possessed pieces that went against his personal taste. Moving into the 21st century， Chinese art reached international attention in no small part to Siggs efforts. He created the Chinese Contemporary Art Award （CCAA）， an award that functioned to get artists noticed by important Western curators and gallery owners. At the same time， pieces by Zhang Xiaogang， Yue Minjun， and others were fetching for millions of dollars. And yet Chinese Lives glosses over5 the link between commerce and art that leads to these astronomical6 prices， and merely notes that these artists were becoming further influenced by Western culture. The downside is that this globalization threatens to erase the specificity of Chinese culture.

Following Siggs announcement that he will donate a sizable portion of his collection to the soon-to-be-opened M+ museum， Chinese Lives ends on a hopeful note for the still-growing art scene in China. Chinese Lives is a standard， conventional documentary filled with interviews with Sigg himself， his wife， Schindler Group colleagues， Wang Guangyi， Cao Chongen， among others.

The documentary is a good starting point to familiarize oneself with contemporary Chinese art and the man who helped expose it to the world.

M+是位于香港的一家中國視覺文化博物館，在經歷了三年的延期之后，于2019年面向公眾開放。該館藝術藏品數量驚人，包羅了艾未未、曹斐、張曉剛、劉煒、王光樂、王廣義、宋冬、海波等諸多藝術家的作品。M+前行政總監李立偉認為該館的內蘊深度與文化意義堪比紐約現代藝術博物館或巴黎蓬皮杜中心。

M+能有如此宏大的規模，瑞士商業家、藝術收藏家烏里·希克厥功至偉。2012年，希克將1510件中國當代藝術作品（他個人藏品的一部分）捐贈、售賣給了該博物館。2016年邁克爾·辛德赫爾姆的紀錄片《烏里·希克的中國人生》回顧了希克的一生及其藝術作品收藏之旅。從社會現實主義到玩世現實主義、政治波普，希克保存了中國當代藝術30年的作品。在多次采訪中，希克都提到，他傾向于將自己視作“一名中國與中國當代藝術的研究者，湊巧購買了自己的某些研究成果”。在這部紀錄片中他重申了這一點。

紀錄片按時間順序分段講述了希克的生活，講述始于1979年，那一年他作為瑞士電梯制造商迅達集團的代表初次來到中國，該集團最終成為了首批中西合資企業中的一員。起初電影快速推進， 讓人覺得20 世紀七八十年代的幾個階段僅僅是故事背景。而到了20 世紀90 年代，影片節奏放緩，穩定下來，這時希克又出鏡了，正是在這十年間希克開啟了他狂熱的藝術收藏之旅。

1995年希克成為瑞士駐華大使，直至1999年卸任。他一直以客觀的文化保護的眼光來購買藝術品，經常會收藏一些與他個人品味相悖的作品。進入21世紀，中國藝術獲得國際關注，希克功不可沒。他創立了中國當代藝術獎，旨在讓西方權威的策展人與畫廊老板關注到中國的藝術家。與此同時，張曉剛、岳敏君等藝術家的作品售價高達數百萬美金。然而該片淡化了造成這些天價的商業與藝術之間的聯系，只說這些藝術家正進一步受到西方文化影響。其弊端在于這種全球化可能會抹除中國文化的特色。

片中希克宣布他會將大量個人藏品捐給即將開業的M+博物館，之后影片便以中國藝術蓬勃發展這種滿懷希望的基調落下帷幕。這是一部標準的傳統紀錄片，里面有各式各樣的人物采訪，采訪對象包括希克本人、其妻子、迅達集團的同事、王廣義、曹崇恩等。

這部紀錄片是了解中國當代藝術和將其推向世界之人的一個好起點。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）