FILMIC FORESIGHT

This year's Sigg Prize winner, Beijingbased Wang Tuo, speaks to Tatler about the experience of returning home to make art and how history haunts us 

- Aaina Bhargava

Wang Tuo draws from important historical episodes to make sense of the environment he navigates today, and presents his findings through classical media such as paintings but has become better known for his video work and films. This has been a consistent framework for his practice, through which he often unearths information and perspectives which may have been lost in time and omitted by history.

It was this approach that in large part led to the multimedia artist, originally from Changchun in northeast China, being named the winner of this year’s Sigg Prize, a biennial award established by Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual art that celebrates outstanding artistic practices from the Greater China region and its diaspora.

The selection committee chaired by M+ director Suhanya Raffel cite as contributing factors in granting the Beijing-based artist the prize Wang’s “impressive production value which creates sophisticated imagery layered with rich cultural references, from classical literature to folklore and ethnic languages” and his ability to recognise and “address parallels in human history across time periods, prompting viewers to reflect on our contemporary situation and the future.”