West Kowloon Cultural District
Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong
M+ is pleased to announce the six artists shortlisted for the inaugural Sigg Prize, which recognises outstanding artistic practice in the Greater China region.
The selected artists are: Hu Xiaoyuan (born 1977, lives and works in Beijing), Liang Shuo (born 1976, lives and works in Beijing), Lin Yilin (born 1964, lives and works in New York), Shen Xin (born 1990, lives and works in London), Tao Hui (born 1987, lives and works in Shanghai), and Samson Young (born 1979, lives and works in Hong Kong).
The Sigg Prize is open to artists born or working in the Greater China region, with the intention to highlight and promote on an international scale the diverse and exciting artistic work and cultural dialogues taking place here. The shortlisted artists were selected by an international jury. For this inaugural edition of the prize, co-chaired by Suhanya Raffel and Liu Li Anna, the members of the jury are: Maria Balshaw (Director, Tate, United Kingdom), Bernard Blistène (Director, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris), Gong Yan (Director, Power Station of Art, Shanghai), Lai Hsiangling (Curator, Taipei), Suhanya Raffel (Museum Director, M+, Hong Kong), Uli Sigg (Collector and Member of the M+ Board, Switzerland), and Xu Bing (Artist, Beijing).
The jury’s selection emerged from discussions that focused on contemporary situations and social issues, especially in relation to the individual in a society that is transforming in a global context, and the ways in which forms of expression derived from various language systems, mediums, and approaches reflect traditions and thinking across cultures. Ultimately, the jury recognised six artists whose practices are experimental and deeply resonant in contemporary contexts. The six, who represent different generations, have strong roots in the Greater China region and work in different major cities around the world, clearly articulating the transnational character of Chinese contemporary art practice.
In a subtle, sophisticated practice interworven with a consideration of everyday experiences, Hu Xiaoyuan prompts viewers to re-examine the nature of materials and relationships. She works in silk painting and sculpture, and has extended her approach further into three dimensions in recent years, defining a new vocabulary for her continued investigations.
Liang Shuo’s creations demonstrate his skill in transforming space and articulating an experimental reading of Chinese tradition. In his unique creative system, he analyses visual elements in daily life and seamlessly toggles between levels of cultural awareness.
In recent years, Lin Yilin has expanded the scope of his practice to encompass virtual reality technology while continuing his focused exploration of social dynamics through the body and performance. His acts of confrontation—simultaneously restrained and eloquent, and often humorous—reveal the violence within contemporary political and cultural systems.
In her powerful, ambitious practice, Shen Xin tackles urgent topics and sensitive questions relating to identity, gender, religon, social ethics, and the art system through the form of fictional documentary. Her critical, nuanced narratives are deeply revelatory and always challenging.
Expanding his career-long engagement with the body, Tao Hui has in recent years focused on developing and refining his video installations, which address emotions and relationships in precise ways. His meticulously orchestrated narratives encompass contemporary cross-cultural currents.
Samson Young draws from his formal training in music composition to define a profoundly experimental art practice. His installations and sound works—which also have a strong visual component and are often interactive—dissect layers of cultural significance, proposing alternative ways to understand and communicate.
The Sigg Prize, established by M+ in Hong Kong in 2018, was formerly the Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA), founded by Uli Sigg in China in 1998. The CCAA was the first award for contemporary art in mainland China, and it was a leading force in steering Chinese art and artists to the world, helping to frame the international conversation on Chinese contemporary art. The CCAA was granted to twenty-five artists or artist groups and nine art critics over its history. Following twenty years of activity, the CCAA has become the Sigg Prize, a new M+ programme.
The six shortlisted artists will be invited to present works from the past two years in the Sigg Prize exhibition, which will be held at the M+ Pavilion, West Kowloon Cultural District, between December 6, 2019 and April 13, 2020 and will be curated by Pi Li, Sigg Senior Curator, Visual Art, M+. During the exhibition, members of the Sigg Prize jury will gather to select the winner based on the exhibition presentation. A cash prize of HKD 500,000 will be awarded to the winner, and HKD 100,000 will be awarded to each of the other shortlisted artists to encourage their future practice. The final result will be announced in January 2020.
For media enquiries
Sutton PR (international media)
Nana Lee
T +852 2528 0792
wkcda [at] suttonpr.com
Communications and Public Affairs Department
West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
Hy Mo
T +852 2200 0714
hy.mo [at] wkcda.hk
About M+
M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the 20th and 21st centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, we are building one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. Our aim is to create a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s 21st century.
About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on 40 hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing 23 hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.
