Mainland Chinese artist Wang Tuo wins M+ museum’s US$64,000 Sigg Prize 2023; jury was ‘moved by the sophisticated imagery and intricate storytelling’
- Wang Tuo’s monumental prize-winning work ‘The Northeast Tetralogy’ is a set of four films that question the record and interpretation of history in China
- The work will remain on view until January 14 in the Main Hall Gallery at M+, to which entry is free, together with the shortlisted works by five other artists
Beijing-based artist Wang Tuo has won the Sigg Prize 2023, Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture announced on January 4.
The monumental prize-winning work, called The Northeast Tetralogy (2018-2021) – described as a multi-year, multi-chapter and multichannel film project – is a set of four films shown on different screens at once.
Subsequent chapters turn to the fates of different protagonists who lived in tumultuous times generations before the birth of the vengeful Zhang.
Some, like Guo Qinguang, a student protester in the May Fourth Movement of 1919 – a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political movement – were real. Others, such as an elderly intellectual living alone during the Chinese civil war, were made up.
Taken together, the saga, enriched with folklore and native languages, seems to be asking the question: how much does the resonance of history affect the action of one man, especially when history can be so unreliable?
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The Sigg Prize jury said that Wang’s work “is a pertinent and timely inquiry into the record and interpretation of history in the Greater China region and beyond”.
The multidimensional narratives create a cinematic experience that fuses historical events with the artist’s speculation on what might have happened, thus making this work “a deep contemplation on the relationship between archive and fiction”, its statement added.
Many layers of narratives in [Wang’s] epic work help foster cultural dialogue and demonstrate his unique vision of the contemporary world
The Sigg Prize is open to artists born or working in the Greater China region. The 2023 award is the second presented since M+, which opened two years ago in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, rebranded the Chinese Contemporary Art Award that Uli Sigg, one of its major patrons and board member, founded in 1997.
Wang wins a cash prize of HK$500,000 (US$64,000), while each shortlisted candidate receives HK$100,000.
“The jury was unanimously moved by the sophisticated imagery and intricate storytelling of [Wang’s work],” said Suhanya Raffel, director of M+ and chairwoman of the Sigg Prize.
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“As an important award recognising and furthering the development of contemporary art in Greater China, the Sigg Prize is delighted to celebrate Wang’s practice.
“Many layers of narratives in his epic work help foster cultural dialogue and demonstrate his unique vision of the contemporary world. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to Wang, and my deep thanks to all the shortlisted artists.”
Among the other judges were Maria Balshaw, director of the Tate galleries in the UK; Bernard Blistène, former director of the Centre Pompidou modern and contemporary art museums in France; Gong Yan, director of Shanghai’s Power Station of Art; Glenn Lowry, director of The Museum of Modern Art in New York; artist Xu Bing; and Sigg himself.
Wang’s winning work will remain on view until January 14 in the Main Hall Gallery at M+, to which entry is free, together with the shortlisted works by five other artists. They are Jes Fan, who lives and works in New York and Hong Kong; New York-based Miao Ying; Beijing- and Chengdu-based Xie Nanxing, Hong Kong-based Trevor Yeung; and Yu Ji, who lives and works in Shanghai and New York.
“Sigg Prize 2023”, Main Hall Gallery, M+, West Kowloon Cultural District, 38 Museum Drive, Kowloon, Tue-Thu and weekends, 10am-6pm, Fri 10am-10pm. Free Entry. Until Jan 14.
