Uli Sigg used to be the Swiss ambassador to China – now some call him ‘the ambassador of Chinese art in the West’. His encyclopedic collection of Contemporary Chinese Art "麻将 Mahjong" can be seen at Kunsthalle in Hamburg in a few days.

  - Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection

14 September 2006 – 18 February 2007

Since the post-Mao reform era began in 1979, China has seen the emergence of an extremely diverse and dynamic art scene, a development that has taken place within a short space of time and in spite of the continuing difficulties faced by those involved in independent art production. In recent years, contemporary art from China has also been attracting great interest in the West.

Chinese artists have quickly found their place in the international art scene, and skilfully employ media, techniques and forms of expression that were developed in the West. Nevertheless, their specifically Chinese roots – pre-modern tradition on the one hand, the requirements of the Socialist Realist style prescribed by the Communist Party until the late 1970s on the other – are evident in many of the artists’ works; in comparison to Western art, for example, greater emphasis is placed on figurative painting.

Some of these artists consciously address the issue of their national identity by adopting the techniques and formal language of traditional Chinese art and placing them in a new context. Another significant trend is to parody or reflect upon the art and art history of the West from a Chinese perspective. Above all, however, Chinese avant-garde art has to be viewed in the light of the tremendous social and economic upheavals that have taken place in recent decades; a large number of works specifically reflect the tension between the socialist ideals which are still officially valid and the wave of consumerism that has swept the country as a result of the capitalist reforms.

Swiss collector Uli Sigg, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ringier Group, has taken a keen interest in China and its culture since the late 1970s. Together with his wife Rita, he has been building a collection devoted exclusively to Chinese art since the mid-1990s, and can justly be regarded as a pioneer in this field. Having initially concentrated on the acquisition of new art, Sigg soon began to extend his collection to include ‘historic’ works of Chinese avant-garde art from the 1980s and early 90s. The result of this systematic approach is a collection of contemporary Chinese art that is unparalleled in its scope and quality. All the leading positions and important trends are represented here by major works, many of which have now achieved iconic status in the Chinese art world.

The exhibition in the Hamburger Kunsthalle gives the German public the opportunity to view a representative selection of works from the Sigg Collection. It provides an overview of a quarter of a century of Chinese avant-garde art (1979–2005) and surpasses all previous exhibitions on the topic in terms of its focus and quality.

A comprehensive catalogue is being published to accompany the exhibition; besides an interview with the collector, it includes essays by the curators, descriptions and analyses of the individual works, as well as a general introduction to sociopolitical and artistic developments in China over the past three decades.
The exhibition has been organized in collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Bern, where it was curated by Bernhard Fibicher and Ai Weiei.

The exhibition in Hamburg has been curated by Dr. Christoph Heinrich.

Source: www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de (text) hnr@kordewiner.com (photo)

Exhibition schedule: Kunstmuseum Bern, June 13 - October 16, 2005 · Hamburger Kunsthalle, September 15, 2006 - February 18, 2007

See also:

"Treasure Island", ArtReview November 2004, Marc Spiegler (PDF)
The first major article ever devoted to Uli Sigg's collection of Chinese contemporary art, which he assembled while being among first Western businessman active post-Revolution, and then Swiss Ambassador to China. With photos by Ed Reeve.

Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection (Hardcover)
by Bernard Fibicher, Ai Weiwei, Feng Boyi ISBN 3-7757-1613-0

Book cover: www.hatjecantz.de

KMobileTools (by Marco Gulino) is a small app that allows you to control phonebook and SMS on your Motorola V180 (and other mobile phones) from your Fedora workstation. Read the review at Linux-Magazine (PDF).

You need the actual/latest implementation of devfs in userspace (udev-058-1.0.FC4.1 >= Fri 30 Sep 2005) to use /dev/ttyACM0 automaticaly loaded via hotplug and have to add yourself to the group uucp to are allowed to access this USB/serial port. You can use [attachment:1=kmobiletools.spec] from Douglas E. Warner on Fedora Core 4 without problems.

KMobileTools uses AT-commands via /dev/ttyACM0 and USBvendorID:USBproductID 22b8:4902 to control your V180 -- if you use moto4lin and/or switch to Motorola P2K mode ("AT+MODE=8"), the USBproductID of the phone will change to 4901 (have a look at Linux-USB-Devel).

From KMobileTools summary page:

• Development Status: 3 - Alpha
• Environment: KDE
• Intended Audience: End Users/Desktop, Telecommunications Industry
• License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
• Natural Language: English, Italian
• Operating System: Linux
• Programming Language: C++
• Topic: Telephony, K Desktop Environment (KDE)

+CGMI +GMI +FMI -- Request Manufacturer ID
These commands request manufacturer identification. The v180 outputs a string containing manufacturer identification information, indicating that this is a Motorola device.

at+cgmi
+CGMI: "Motorola CE, Copyright 2000"
OK
at+gmi
+GMI: "Motorola CE, Copyright 2000"
OK
at+fmi
+FMI: "Motorola CE, Copyright 2000"
OK

+CGMM, +GMM, +FMM, Request Model ID
These commands request the model identification. The v180 outputs a string containing information about the specific model, including a list of the supported technology used, and the particular model number.

at+cgmm
+CGMM: "GSM900","GSM1800","GSM1900","MODEL=V180"
OK
at+gmm
+GMM: "GSM900","GSM1800","GSM1900","MODEL=V180"
OK
at+fmm
+FMM: "GSM900","GSM1800","GSM1900","MODEL=V180"
OK

You can search my German language sites kordewiner.de, hnr.unwissenschaftlich.de and wohnzimmerrechenzentrum.de with the form above. Please note that the Google search uses a database outside of kordewiner.com and therefore the search results may be out of date.