我覺得您穿的這麼優雅，我的西裝領呔顯得很呆板。
其實這是件貼身穿的內衣。如果真的要講究正式的話，我應該穿一件長袍。
好吧。
張頌仁先生，非常感謝您抽出寶貴時間接受我們的採訪，更感謝您40年來致力於向世界展示中國藝術。1981年，您舉辦了您的第一個中國當代藝術展，公眾當時的反應如何？
那個展覽很有趣，因為那是香港很熟悉的一位藝術家，但人們認為他已經過了創作的巔峰期，或者認為他有點失去理智，因為他當時正在做一些瘋狂的藝術品。他的名字叫陳福善，1905年生於清朝。但他做的事情是當時的新銳藝術家都不會做的，所以他在今天就成為了時尚。這就是我開始走上這條路的原因。
1981 年也是中國社會和經濟改革的前期，這些改革引發了中國現代史上最大的轉變，也許也是中國整個歷史的轉變。回顧過去，您認為您當時展出的作品如何表現這一點？
自 20 世紀初以來，中國一直在不斷地追尋現代的和新的事物。因此，1981 年可能是另一個變革的最重要時刻之一，也就是社會主義制度與資本主義制度結合的一個試驗。因此80年代非常重要。那個十年，對於我們如何走到了今天也非常重要。
您是Art Basel的中流砥柱，Art Basel也是世界上最重要的藝術展。來到您的展區觀賞藝術品的，不僅有收藏家，還有普羅大眾。他們會問您什麼？是否有一種流派或某種類型的作品會吸引他們前來？
一種吸引力是新藝術家，新作品。我的另一個角度是藝術，我希望將它與中國最優秀的文化傳統聯繫起來。在過去的幾年裡，我一直致力於展出山水畫。中國山水畫就像歐洲的宗教藝術。這是人們幾個世紀以來對於精神世界的想像和努力。如今，我們有新一代一流的山水畫大師，所以我也在努力向世界展示它們。
由於有像您這樣的人，所以越來越多人對中國當代藝術產生了濃厚的興趣。您覺得中國當代藝術有沒有幫助世界更好地了解這個國家和它的 14 億人民？
毫無疑問，藝術可能是理解一種文化最重要的直觀方式，那就是從視覺上、感官上以及現在通過影像藝術和更多身臨其境的體驗來感受它。中國藝術曾經完全與世隔絕，尤其是它的實驗性部分，使其在 90 年代成為非華人世界非常有趣的文化體驗。但後來，在這30年裡，這個世界越來越融合，人們也了解很多過去30年在創意舞台上發生的事情。而且我認為很多人都通過藝術家的工作來了解中國藝術，了解中國人的想法，了解發展的趨勢和人民的願望。
您非常沉著、冷靜，卻也流露您非常迫切希望為未來記錄過去，這種記憶檔案有助於我們理解自己作為中國人、亞洲人、全球公民的身份。我們是否已經實現了這一點？
我認為記錄和前進只是同一枚硬幣的兩面。你總是帶著你的記憶往前走。而中華文明的重要之處在於，它始終帶著它的歷史記憶向前走。但在 20 世紀，大家都不得不接受如此多的新思想，尤其是西方一直在出現令人震驚的新事物。藝術講述了在動盪而刺激的世界中，人們和他們內心的故事，也訴說了人們的希望。
I feel like such a stiff wearing a tie with you when you're so elegantly dressed.
Well, I'm afraid this is actually what should be the undershirt. I should be wearing a long gown, if I was really proper.
Okay, then.
Johnson Chang, thank you very much for your time, but more so for committing your life to showing the world what artists in China are doing and having done so for well over four decades. In 1981, you staged your first exhibition of Chinese contemporary art, what was the reaction to the works that you gave them to see?
That was an interesting exhibition in the sense that it was an exhibition of an artist that people actually know well in Hong Kong, but thought that he had gone past the hill or think that he had actually lost his mind because he was doing such crazy works. His name is Luis Chan, he was born in the Qing Dynasty in 1905. But he was doing things which at that time none of the cutting edge artists would do, and today he would become fashionable. So this was how I started.
1981 was also the eve of the social and economic reforms that triggered the biggest transformation in China's modern history, and perhaps its whole history as well. Looking back, how do you think that was expressed in the works that you were showing of that time?
China has been in this constant search for the modern, for the new, since the early part of the 20th century. So, 1981 was probably one of the most important moments of another change, and the ’80s was important in that it was a socialist system experimenting with a capitalist system. So, it was a very important decade for us to move today.
You are a mainstay of Art Basel, the most important show of its kind in the world. When people walk past your space at Art Basel, not just the collecting public but the wider public, what do they ask you? And is there a genre or type of work that seems to draw them towards you?
One would be new artists, new work. And the other angle I take is art, which I hope will connect it with the the finest tradition of Chinese cultural history. In last few years, I've been working very much on the theme of landscape. Landscape art in China is like religious art for Europe. It is the spiritual realm which people have imagined and worked upon for centuries. And we have a new generation of first-rate landscape artists, so that I work on as well.
Today, there is obviously a deep interest in Chinese contemporary art because of people like yourself. When you look at Chinese contemporary art, has it in any way helped the world to better understand the nation and its 1.4 billion people?
Definitely, this is probably the most important intuitive way of understanding a culture is to grasp it visually, sensually, and now with video art, and also with a lot of more immersive experience. For Chinese art, the fact that it was totally closed-off to the world, especially the experimental part of it made it a very, very intriguing cultural experience for the non-Chinese world in the ’90s. But then, in the past 30 years, the world has actually been exposed and also understands a lot of what has been happening in the last 30 years on the creative platform. And I think a lot of people get their knowledge about Chinese art, and about how Chinese people think, and the direction people take and their desires through what artists do.
You have a serenity, a calmness, which betrays the fact that there's also a great urgency about you to document the past for the future, so that archive of memories contributes to our understanding of our own identities as Chinese, as Asians, as global citizens. Have we achieved that yet?
Archiving and going forward, I think, are just two sides of the same coin. Moving forward, you always carry your memory with you. And the important thing about Chinese civilization is that it has always carried its historical memory with it as it goes forward. But in the 20th century, having to take in so much new ideas, especially with the shocking news that is happening in the West all the time. Art tells the story of the people and their souls in this turmoil and its excitement, and it tells a story of their hopes.
