在今年的巴塞爾藝術展上，你有一個名為「過去與現在的風景」的特別展。有現代大師的作品、大型裝置，甚至有作品印在標誌性的電車穿越香港。那麼，你想向公眾傳遞什麼訊息呢？

很多時候，當人們看到山水畫或者想到中國山水畫時，自然而然就會想到這種非常傳統的中國山水畫。我覺得很多時候，對於未經訓練的眼睛或西方收藏家來說，他們很難去理解或欣賞山水畫。我們想做「過去」和「現在」，因為我們想把這個畫種當代化，讓更多人理解和欣賞它。說到標誌性的香港電車，就是把整個非常傳統的藝術用經典的媒介帶到公眾面前，所以每個人都可以看到它，人們也可以理解和意識到「原來它不是那麼令人生畏」。

說到山水畫，中國的山水畫是書法中筆墨的延伸，被認為是繪畫的最高形式。中國藝術家用山、河、瀑布，甚至農田，展示了他們與自然世界的親近。這些藝術家告訴了我們什麼？

你真的可以從作品中看到他們對自然的看法，以及尊重自然的重要性。人類需要與自然共存，而不是認為大自然是理所當然的存在，更不能破壞基本的由上帝所賜予的東西。另一件作品是香港藝術家李展輝創作的一座和山有關的雕塑。在山的頂部，有三個很大的不鏽鋼「水滴」，非常不穩定地棲息在這座尖尖的山頂上。為什麼在這座美麗的山上？為什麼只有水滴？也許有人說，不對，山頂不應該有流動的水，應該像冰川一樣結冰。但是，如果你仔細觀察這三滴水，它們其實正在慢慢融化。當然這也是作品的一個注釋。我們應該有更多的水，如果沒有，它就應該是凍結成冰，但現在它開始融化了。所以，我認為這些藝術家真的熱愛自然，他們注意到了正在發生的所有變化。

藝倡畫廊（Alisan Fine Arts） 多年來已成為來自中國內地、香港甚至全球華人當代藝術家的主要聚集地。這三個群體有著重疊但又截然不同的歷史。這些經歷是如何在這些藝術家作品中體現出來的？

像丁雄泉和趙春翔，他們都是華人藝術家，二人都是在上世紀40 年代離開中國，途經歐洲，最終在 50 年代定居紐約。那時正值美國抽象表現主義運動和後來的波普藝術運動的鼎盛時期。所以如果你看他們的作品，會發現這種影響在他們的作品中很明顯。比如他們使用這些螢光、明亮的顏色，這很容易讓人聯想到波普藝術。尤其是對趙春翔來說，在他的抽象作品中，他使用了很多非常有力和大膽的筆觸，讓人想起Jackson Pollock之類的藝術家。然後如果我們看看香港水墨大師，比如說呂壽琨，他用墨水和紙描繪了所謂的禪意山水畫，抽象的圖像喚起一種禪的感覺。他大半輩子都住在香港。所以我認為他的畫更接近中國山水畫的傳統，他所描繪的真實形象並不重要，但它就像喚起一種感覺。然後，如果再看看同樣以水墨傳統創作的內地藝術家，由於他們接觸西方的機會較少，甚至在這個時代也是如此，所以通常在他們自己的傳統中探索現代語言。所以，像王天德這樣的人，他的作品是一種傳統的山水畫。但是，為了使他的作品現代化和當代化，他使用水墨，也用焚香來「繪畫」。實際上他是用香來燒紙，用香來作畫。

At this year's Art Basel, you have a special presentation called 'Past and Present Landscapes', we've got exhibits by modern masters, large-scale installations, and even works that will travel through Hong Kong on the iconic tram. So, what's the message that you bring?

Oftentimes, when people look at landscape or think of Chinese landscape painting, it's automatically like this very traditional Chinese landscape that appears and I think, oftentimes, for an untrained eye or to the Western collectors, it's very difficult for them to understand or appreciate it. We wanted to do 'past' and 'present' because we wanted to contemporize this whole genre of paintings and allow more people to understand it and appreciate it. When you're talking about the iconic Hong Kong tram car, that's bringing this whole very traditional classical medium right into the public in our face, so everybody can see it and they can understand and realise, oh, it's not so intimidating after all.

Speaking of landscapes, Chinese landscape art is an extension of the brushstrokes in calligraphy and regarded as the highest form of painting. Chinese artists use mountains, rivers, waterfalls, even agriculture, which demonstrates their closeness to the natural world. What do these artists teach us?

You really can see how they think of nature and how it's really important to respect nature. And also, the need for humans to coexist with nature and not taking it for granted and not destroying what is basically given by God. Another work that this artist, Hong Kong artist, Danny Lee has created is a sculpture with a mountain. And on top, there's three large droplets of stainless steel 'water'. It's kind of perched very precariously on top of this pointy mountain. Why is it on top of this beautiful mountain? Why do we only have droplets of water? Maybe people say, oh, no, at the top of the mountain there shouldn't be flowing water, it should be frozen like a glacier. But then if you look closely at these three droplets of water, they're actually slowly melting. So that's also a commentary. Either we should have more water, or if not it's supposed to be ice and it's frozen, but then now it's starting to melt. So, I think the these artists... they really have a love for nature and they're noticing that there's all these changes that are going on.

Alisan Fine Arts over the years has become a major gathering point for Chinese contempory artists from the mainland, Hong Kong, and the global diaspora. These are three groups with overlapping yet distinct histories of their own. How does this mix of experiences come out in the works that these artists create?

Someone such as Walasse Ting, as well as Chao Chung-Hsiang, they’re Chinese diaspora artists and they both left China in ther 1940s via Europe and they both eventually settled in New York City in the 1950s. And this was during the height of the American abstract expressionist movement and later the pop art movement. And so if you look at their artwork, you can see that that type of influence clearly comes out in their work, such as their use of these fluorescent, bright colours, which is very reminiscent of pop art, especially for Chou Chung-Hsiang, his abstract work, he uses a lot of very strong and bold strokes that is of reminiscent of like Jackson Pollock or somebody like that. And then if we look at somebody like a Hong Kong Ink Master like Lui Shou-kwan, he depicts paintings that are called Zen landscape paintings with ink and paper, and these are abstract images that evoke a feeling of Zen. He stayed in Hong Kong for most of his life. So I think his paintings are closer to the tradition of Chinese landscape paintings, where the actual image of what he is depicting isn't really important, but it's like evoking a feeling. And then if you look at a mainland artist who also works in ink tradition, since their exposure to the West is much less even true in this day and age, their search for a modern language is usually within their own tradition. So, somebody like Wang Tiande, his work is a traditional landscape painting. But then, in order to modernise and contemporize what he's doing, he uses ink, and he uses incense to 'paint' where he actually burns the paper with the incense, and he's drawing with with incense.