DSL Collection

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Address: Beijing, China

What is the dsl collection?
The dsl Collection was created in 2005 and focuses on contemporary Chinese art. It is a private collection currently representing 90 of the leading Chinese avant-garde artists, most of whom have a major influence on the development of contemporary art in China today.
The collection is not only significant on a personal level, but also on a larger scale. We start from a museum approach,which means that we are collecting a wide range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and video. To choose this kind of approach implies making the collection accessible for the public, as well as documenting the featured works.
The major tools to achieve these goals is the use of new technologies, such as the internet and interactive programs and supports. These tools provide the means to share the experience of contemporary culture and to make it more accessible and meaningful for a broader public.

How did we become interested in Chinese art?
Art is the mirror of a Society. When my wife and I came to Shanghai for the first time in 2005, I felt that the city embodies a ceaseless pursuit of the “superhuman” that redefines traditional definitions of humanity, sustainability, scale, and speed. Somehow these feelings were very inspiring and we wanted to find art and artists that express the relationships between contemporary art production and society. We are also interested by the Chinese artists who are living outside mainland China, in Taiwan, for instance, and mainly in the Chinese Diaspora in Europe and the United States. One should also not forget that apart from having a 5,000 year-old cultural history, China is the biggest cultural space in the world.

How is dsl collection different than other collections?
We never compare our collection with others because every collection is by nature unique. However, we follow strict personal guide lines in building our collection.

About Collecting, how do you approach it?
“Collecting,” is not “accumulating.” and it is not “investing.” It is acquiring objects that have some relation to each other and putting those objects into the kind of order that reflects the collector’s response to them. Each true collection achieves a personality beyond and apart from the sum of the objects.

What role does the Collector play?
The Collector should not take centre stage himself and should let the art itself be at the centre of the collection. Artists should be given the maximum spotlight. Its what the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist calls “the fundamental invisibility.”

What is the the dsl Collection viewpoints?
- A museum approach
At first we looked at Chinese art according to our personal tastes, but we very soon realized that very few people were systematically collecting Chinese contemporary art, either in China or outside – neither institutions, nor individuals had a museum approach and even less so a university museum approach.

And why this kind of approach?
University museums are unlike other museums. They are not intended to have a powerhouse of master-works on display, though some have their share of these. As such, they often house objects that are considered of second- and third-tier value at auction but that fill out a deep and detailed account of cultural history. Intellectual adventure is privileged over box-office appeal.

- Education and entertainment

Entertainment and education have quite different intents, but they can be integrated to achieve both aims. Certainly the demand from younger people has shifted strongly to only paying attention if content is truly entertaining. Beyond that, Art is fundamentally aboutproviding experiences. People today seek engaging and powerful experiences.

What is dsl collection focused on?
In this New Age, a private collection is also about inspiring people. Dsl collection would like to become a platform that is accessible to everybody from everywhere. A place where people can have exciting experiences, build their knowledge and actively participate. With the help of curators and critics we try to get the audience engaged and, consequently, move ideas forward and extend interest in Chinese contemporary art.

Why is the internet platform interesting in dsl collection?
Having chosen a museum approach, we felt an obligation to make the works available to the public. The challenge of attracting audiences is hardly new.
dsl collection have to admit that many brick and mortar museums for the most part are kind of hidden jewels .They do not have great foot traffic and often they are unable to exhibit many of their important works at the same time. That is why, as for showing the works we have decided upon, to primarily use technology by creating a website: dslcollection.org. Nevertheless, nothing will ever replace a direct contact between the audience and an artwork. Internet renders possible an ” EVERYBODY, EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME”experience!

How the dsl collection will evolve in the future?
The collection is limited to a specific number of art works - about 150 pieces – that, as an entity, is open to constant redefinition. Openness, movement and communication are basic qualities we want to promote. We shall focus more and more on education by being ever more present in China in particular. In 2010 dsl collection will be in charge of an Art Management course at the Shanghai University.

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