A userfriendly way to start the conversation

Times are changing. Today, in China, it is always good, when talking about art and we want to do a bit of spirit, drag a few allusions to the gains expected in this area... A user-friendly way to start the conversation. Thus, when the Swiss dealer Pierre Huber, meeting the Beijing collector Guan Yi and asked about his exhibition for the last production of the painter Zhou Tiehai, it he replies simply intervening interpreter: "essentially, it is not that the exhibition is good, it is you all sold ais." Yet, contrary to appearances, Guan Yi, forty years, is a committed collector. So engaged, since 2004 he abandoned his brother its activities in the chemical industry and advertising to focus entirely on contemporary art collection. Was raised to Tsingtao, Northeast China, in this city that foreigners know only by the beer of the same name. Since then, it is open to new ideas and takes a speech particularly based on his ambitions in this area.

He is gentle, serious but relaxed, dressed in jeans and an embroidered shirt as could be any man to fashion in the West.

Guan Yi was first an amateur photographer, in the 1980s. "The photo is an excellent tool to make the reality, but me, I loved the abstract picture to express my sensitivity." At the same time, he continued his studies of engineer chemist, specializing in oil, when occur, in 1989, the events of Tiananmen Square. "Therefore, the context was difficult for the art." It could not express themselves freely. It received nor information on the subject, if it is in my personal case in a timely manner on the part of friends who resided at Taiwan.

In 1993, Guan Yi began his career in the chemical industry it does not reveal the name of the company that his brother is now and, when the travel begin to be abroad, he explores the world of contemporary creation. "I had the dream of the art in mind". Should I turn to the Act. "In 2001, he finally buys art. Justification: "Collecting in China is today more important than to be artist." Any Chinese contemporary heritage left for abroad, since all purchasers are Western. "He quotes then the two leaders of the contemporary Chinese art collection, Switzerland Uli Sigg (1) and the Belgian Peter Ullens, to comment:"both are excellent collectors and they contribute to the development of Chinese art, but their interests are those in the West." Their collections contain a too political vision of Chinese art.

Today, Guan Yi is considered his country's largest contemporary Chinese collector. It has approximately 600 works, including a number of monumental pieces arranged in its warehouse to 2,000 m2.

Although in a hyper-spéculatif context, he denied the financial calculations. "If your approach is too commercial, you may pass a few next to the art." As the artist, his dream, today shared by many Chinese, is to have a big car, it is too simple. "The leading collector selection criteria are clearly set out. He met the artists in person and listen to their projects, their artistic approach and how to implement them. But the personality of the artist account also. "It must be unique." Guan Yin, "contemporary art finds its origin in the West, but he was now actively on China." "It is such that it has and will have more as well as characteristics".

A Museum at the top

The plastic surgeon that he placed at the top of his list is installed in France since 1989, Huang Yong Ping. Guan Yi is very pleased to note, with a big smile, that he was coreprésentant of the France at the 2001 Venice Biennale. "Me, I met him during one of his visits to Beijing for an exhibition." It is now one of the most important Chinese artists at the global level. "The collector doesn't mince his words:"Huang Yong Ping is a warrior." When he arrived in Paris, he already had in mind his founding ideas: the influence of Dada but the zen spirit. He wants to use his oriental mind to affect the Western environment and use the Western power to influence China.

Among the favorite parts of Guan Yi he said be the most important collector for this artist, there is one it does not possess and which is composed of two books, a Chinese and a Western, which were passed to the washing machine. He however holds a canvas, copy of a Modigliani, painted by Huang Yong Ping, who also was passed to the washing machine. A reference to the nature of art, the copy of the consumer society... Guan Yi also cites another artist conceptual Chinese, French adoption, died in December 2000, Chen Zen. "Daniel Buren has had much influence on him, you know" There also for project acquisition outside of its Chinese artists, Western creations "to understanding the strength and the weakness of Chinese art".

But the dream of the collector not shared so far would give his collection to the State. "In the field of post-modern art, the whole China has less than an only small Western village collections." In the next 10 years, the national authorities provided 1,500 museums opening. But I am afraid whether it folk or traditional art museums. "Then he thinks open a museum private from the centre of Beijing because real estate prices which will contain its collection. Its reference DIA Beacon, a huge space to even aesthetics, located an hour from New York train, the Hudson. A promising ambition.