ZURICH, MARCH 6, 2024 – Uli Sigg, former journalist, businessman, and Swiss ambassador to China, North Korea and Mongolia, first started collecting contemporary Chinese art in the early 1990's – after following it since its beginning in 1978. The 'reform and opening-up' of China in 1978 held true for economic reforms but also for the arts – even though a lot less publicly. In an encyclopedic collection Uli Sigg documented the rapidly changing (cultural) landscape of China, focusing on works referring to key moments and movements. In 2012, Uli Sigg donated almost 1500 works to the M+ museum in Hong Kong to make the collection accessible to the public and to preserve it as a resource for understanding Chinese contemporary art. He has not stopped collecting, though, and continues to acquire and commission new works.

In conversation with moderator Aurelia Rauch, Uli Sigg talked about his collection and how his collecting activities changed after the donation to M+.

Dr. Uli Sigg in his career traversed very diverse fields: from journalism to industry to diplomacy as Swiss ambassador to China, North Korea and Mongolia to venture capital investing and to art. He served on various boards of global companies and is an active investor into early-stage tech companies. Of his extensive interactions in more than forty years with the PR China, two are of historic significance: to establish 1980 the first industrial joint venture between the PRC and the outside world which marks the beginning of the PRC's epochal globalization process. Around the same time, he began to form his singular collection of Chinese contemporary art representing the story line from its beginnings in the 1970s to the present – and then restituting 1500 works back to China, to the M+ Museum in Hong Kong. In 1997 he also established the Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA) for Chinese contemporary artists living in Greater China, now transformed into the SIGG PRIZE. He is a member of the M+ Museum Board, the International Council of New York Modern Art Museum (MoMA), the International Advisory Council of Tate Gallery, London, and a member of the Board of the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft. Uli Sigg is also a member of Asia Society Switzerland's Advisory Board. 
 

Aurelia Rauch is the Chief Experience Officer at Bergos and Member of the bank's Executive Board. She received her Magistra Artium in Art History at the University of Münster in 2010, after her training in museum education at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld and the Kunstmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster. Until 2018, she lived and worked in New York City and played an important role in New York's vibrant contemporary art scene, alongside her work in commercial and non-profit art organizations. Most recently she worked as Creative Director at Sperone Westwater on projects with artists such as Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg, Richard Long, Tom Sachs and Ali Banisadr. Bergos is a Corporate Partner of Asia Society Switzerland.

About Big Picture

Big Picture is a public event series where we celebrate art in all its forms and shapes: Be it food, movies, museums, or literature. We invite artists, curators, and experts to talk about their practices and how these can help shed light on the world we live in. These talks are designed to further the dialogue and exchange across disciplines and regions and to travel beyond the events.

Partners

The Big Picture event series is made possible with the support of Bergos and hosted in cooperation with Karl der Grosse.

This Big Picture event is hosted in cooperation with sinokultur.