Firstly please tell me more about you. Why did you launch the Vanguard Gallery?
My major was in finance: I originally worked in a bank in South China. But after six years I realized this was not the life I wanted to live; so I quit my job. Then I met some artists who taught painting classes so that to earn enough money to launch a gallery. At that time I did not know what else to do and I liked painting so I learnt painting with them. They finally opened a gallery and I helped them a little. Finally I moved back to Shanghai and I decided to try to open my own gallery.
What are your thoughts about Art13 London?
I love it, I feel this fair is very interesting. I have already been to London for another fair few years ago, but I really have the impression that this time the organisers have done a really professional work. For example during the opening there were many visitors, art lovers, collectors, and so on. So in other words Art13 London is a good platform that enables us to meet them and promote the art.
Vanguard Gallery participates quite often to International art fairs, which one would you say is the most fruitful?
Actually I like London’s art fairs. There are people from many different countries gathered in here, and in fact many of our clients and friends are based in Europe. So London represents a good place for us to promote the artists’ works. We have also participated in several art fairs in Asia, such as Art Stage {in Singapore} where we went twice. It is totally different from London especially because the visitors are mainly coming from South East Asian countries, all the galleries are coming from there as well, but it is a good opportunity to know them better. To me they represent different experiences.
In your booth you have eleven paintings and two photographs. How easy is it to sell contemporary photography? What is the current state of Chinese photography market?
As you know we are not specialised in photography although we try gradually to become as such because I very much like this medium. Today we work with four photographers: two are Japanese based in Paris and two Chinese and we learnt a lot from our collaboration with them.
I believe photography is not easy to promote in Asia because collectors in general prefer to buy paintings, notably oil paintings, they still mired in the traditional way of thinking, besides oil painting is quite easy to preserve. One of the reasons why collectors are reluctant to buy photograph is because in the South – for instance in cities such as Hong Kong, Taipei, and so forth – the climate is heavily humid so photographs tend to stick together if they are not well protected. I think this is a major issue that constraints the photography art market in Asia.
Another reason is collectors tend to think photographs can be printed endlessly. They do not trust the edition as a finite number of prints, photography is still considered as a commercial thing rather than an artistic vehicle. Something remains to be done so that to change collectors’ ideas about photography.
On the occasion of Art13 London, you decided to present several artists including the photographer Shen Xuezhe. Why have you chosen this artist?
There is a mixture of criteria when choosing an artist. Having a good story to tell is one thing, then how you can use this story is also very important. An interesting artist is able to transform the content and express something deep through his artwork, which ultimately has an impact on the audience. Shen Xuezhe is a new artist with whom we just started to work with and his photographs have already attracted a lot of attention not only in Shanghai but also here. Very important collectors from Europe are really interested in buying his artworks. I have chosen him because a lot of feelings and stories lay behind these apparently simple landscapes and once the people know more about the stories they are generally impressed by such representations.
Can you tell me more about these stories?
The story is about the artist himself: he is Korean-Chinese, his grandparents fled North Korea and ended up in China during the Second World War. They settled down in a small village near the frontier river in North China. It would be easy then to make parallel with political issues, but he claims these landscapes have little to do with politics; instead they are filled with emotions and tackle with personal concerns. He is separated from parts of his family since his aunt and uncle still live in North Korea, but they cannot meet nor communicate. Hence he took a series of photographs of the famous river that separates North Korea and China. In the end the landscapes symbolize his melancholic gaze towards North Korea, towards his family. None of them is neutral, when you look at them you can tell very clearly the implied emotions.
In some photographs, the river seems narrow but it is actually impossible to cross. He told me once that he used to play with other children in this very river but nowadays it would be impossible to do that because of the Chinese-Korean border fence. This is why you can see North Korea soldiers in some photographs. He even admitted that taking such photographs was quite dangerous; so in general he would first spend a lot of time scouting the location before shooting very quickly. In another photograph you can see food and a bottle of wine on the ground of the riverbank, it is because at that time someone he knew died in North Korean but since he was not allowed to go there it was the only way he could paid tribute to this person.
The whole story is very sad and evokes notions of separation and personal issues; all these things encouraged him to create this series. The general appearance of the photographs seems a little romantic, as if they were pure representations of landscape for their own sake, but once you know the story it changes the way you look at them, you feel the profound sadness.
You have held a photographic exhibition entitled "Mountain in sight, Spirit in Heart", in which you have shown the artworks of two young photographers: with notably Shen Xuezhe and Di Jinjun. Why did you decide to organise this exhibition?
It was the first time we set up a show for two people originally not involved in the contemporary art world per se. I do not know how it is in Europe, but in China photographers and contemporary artists constitute two different universes, only few people are both photographer and artist. Thus I have deliberately set up a show of photographers because I wanted people to see other type of artworks. But after the opening of the exhibition I thought that Shen Xuezhe was closer to contemporary art than Di Jinjun, even though Shen does not consider himself as an artist. To me Di Jinjun’s photographs stress principally on the technique and on the documentary approach. But one should keep in mind that there is not necessary a story behind a photograph, and if so it has to be natural. Of course the main purpose of setting up such an exhibition was majorly to include new photographers in the gallery.
What are your future projects?
In the coming years we are hoping to show more young artists creating various types of artworks. And we will continue to look for new photographers.
