{"id":626,"date":"2021-04-30T08:33:26","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T00:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=626"},"modified":"2021-04-29T11:52:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T03:52:27","slug":"rocket-man-uli-sigg-on-how-he-began-collecting-art-while-working-in-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/rocket-man-uli-sigg-on-how-he-began-collecting-art-while-working-in-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket man: Uli Sigg on how he began collecting art while working in North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Swiss art collector Uli Sigg<\/a> first visited North Korea in the 1980s as an employee of the Schindler Elevator Corporation. In 1995 he became the Swiss ambassador there, and was the only foreign art collector permitted to purchase works portraying the regime\u2019s leaders, among them a painting of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il<\/a> in front of their country\u2019s rocket arsenal.<\/p>\n

Sigg\u2019s collection of Korean art\u2014from both North and South Korea\u2014is to go on show in a politically sensitive exhibition,\u00a0Border Crossings<\/em>, at the Kunstmuseum Bern at the end of this month. The border between the two Koreas, 250km of barbed wire and anti-tank defences, is one that cannot be crossed, but the exhibition aims to act as a kind of dialogue between the countries that are both enemies and siblings.<\/p>\n

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\"Uli<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Uli Sigg<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Christian Scholz<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI was fascinated by this highly emotional variant of Socialist Realism.\u201d\u00a0ULI SIGG, ART COLLECTOR<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Kunstmuseum and Sigg are breaking a taboo by showing art of the two Koreas together. Showing and acquiring North Korean art in South Korea is restricted, the curator Kathleen B\u00fchler says, while South Korean art\u2014or indeed any art not produced via the official channels\u2014is banned in North Korea. Officials of both countries have been invited to a tour of the exhibition before the opening, B\u00fchler says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be some protests, I have to anticipate that,\u201d Sigg says. But he hopes the exhibition might even bring diplomatic benefits. \u201cBoth sides will articulate themselves to us and to the media, and that could in itself be of value,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As a businessman selling elevators in North Korea, Sigg visited the National Museum in Pyongyang, where two floors glorified the country\u2019s military and political might and showed images of North Korea\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Sea (2008) by North Korea Collective<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Sigg Collection, Mauensee \u00a9 the artist<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cI had already seen Socialist Realism in China and in Russia, so I was curious how the North Korean version would play out,\u201d Sigg says. \u201cI was fascinated by this highly emotional variant of Socialist Realism. The ideas are the same, they have a very similar language, but they pushed it even further when it comes to emotionality, in the expressions they have on their faces.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he became the ambassador to North Korea, and later as a guest of the government, Sigg used his official contacts to gain access to the two North Korean art cooperatives, Mansudae and Mount Paektu. He was at first told he would not be allowed to have portraits of the Kim family, as these were considered national patrimony and only hung in official buildings. But his persistence and connections in the regime meant Sigg finally managed to acquire the works he wanted.<\/p>\n

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\"Guang<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Guang Tingbo’s Hua Guofeng in North Korea (1978)<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Sigg Collection, Mauensee \u00a9 the artist<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

At one stage, the North Korean government even suggested that Sigg might want to build a museum in North Korea and \u201cplay a role similar to the one I played for Chinese contemporary art\u201d, he says. In 2012 Sigg donated around 1,500 works for the foundation of M+, the contemporary art museum in Hong Kong\u2019s West Kowloon district. He declined the North Korean offer, he says, \u201cbecause it was more than I was able to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sigg\u2019s North Korean Socialist Realist works will be shown alongside works by South Korean artists focused on the peninsula\u2019s divisions. Some Chinese artists are also represented in the show\u2014Wang Guofeng, for instance, photographed grand-scale military parades glorifying the regime during visits to North Korea in 2012 and 2013.<\/p>\n

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\"Kyungah<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Kyungah Ham’s Sweet-Sweet & Bling-Bling (2009-10)<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Sigg Collection, Mauensee \u00a9 artist<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The exhibition will also feature the embroideries of South Korean artist Kyungah Ham, produced in North Korea<\/a>. Using Chinese intermediaries, she established contacts with a textile factory in North Korea to produce her designs, which carried messages to the makers, such as a motif of a mushroom cloud.<\/p>\n

This project was an attempt \u201cto achieve an artistic message and communicate with unknown people in North Korea\u201d, Ham says, inpired by a North Korean propaganda leaflet that she discovered in front of her home. The operation, she says in the catalogue, required smugglers and go-betweens who asked for bribes or simply disappeared. It was, she says, \u201clike something out of a spy movie\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Source\uff1ahttps:\/\/www.theartnewspaper.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Swiss art collector Uli Sigg first visited North Korea in the 1980s as an employee of the Schindler Elevator Corporation. In 1995 he became the Swiss ambassador there, and was the only foreign art collector permitted to purchase works portraying the regime\u2019s leaders, among them a painting of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"\nRocket man: Uli Sigg on how he began collecting art while working in North Korea - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Swiss art collector Uli Sigg first visited North Korea in the 1980s as an employee of the Schindler Elevator Corporation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/rocket-man-uli-sigg-on-how-he-began-collecting-art-while-working-in-north-korea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rocket man: Uli Sigg on how he began collecting art while working in North Korea - 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