Mark Jones: V&A'S Inspiration Is "Every Day Is New."

Sir Mark Jones, director of the V&A Museum in London, is not only a research expert on coins and arms, but also has many insights into the artistic innovations of the current global museums.

This time, he came to China with the world's most sophisticated and interesting design coding and decoding: International Digital Art Exhibition.

Mark Jones (Mark Jones)'s trip to Beijing was in a hurry.

He came to the "coding and decoding International Digital Art Exhibition" opened recently at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum. The exhibition has gathered the world's most sophisticated and interesting design.

Mark Jones and curator of the Vitoria and Albert Museum (Victoria & Albert Museum hereinafter referred to as V&A), in people's impression, is a collection of traditional classics and works of art is famous, and this time in the forefront of the art trend of the exhibition seems to have a very small distance.

But in fact, "V&A collected contemporary works in 1840s, and we still collect contemporary works in 2010.

Collecting contemporary works is nothing new to us. "

Said Sir Jones.

During his brief stay in Beijing, he accepted an exclusive interview with the first financial daily, describing the perfect combination of modern and traditional V&A.

Museums growing up in World Expo

The predecessor of V&A was the museum which was built in 1837 for the British national design school, "the world's first museum of educational services". After the successful holding of the first World Exposition in London in 1852, it was renamed the Museum of Vitoria and Albert.

"We believe that good design can promote people's happy life and good social development," Sir Jones said. Today, V&A has become the inspiration for designers, artists and people who aspire to it all over the world.

In terms of collection size, V&A is the largest art museum in the world. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, ceramics, furniture, fashion, photography, glass, jewelry, metal products and textiles. "We also have many collections of contemporary Chinese artists and designers, including contemporary Chinese photography."

Now, there is digital art.

The "encoding and decoding" of this exhibition was first exhibited in London last year.

Daniel Brown and Daniel Brown, who won the "designer of the year" award of the London Museum of design, and the works of John Maeda, the great master of electronic art, met with people, including a piece of work specially made by the museum to Chinese artist Feng Mengbo, John.

This is the first exhibition designed by the V&A museum focusing on contemporary digital art and design themes. It is full of interaction, and a digital tree that picures outdoor natural images will follow the outdoor wind direction, and draw pictures with body posture to get a picture of its own.

"Our collections may sometimes be wrong, but we are also recording history, reflecting people's understanding of contemporary art."

Sir Jones said that digital art is reflecting the understanding of contemporary art by the cutting-edge artists.

But the innovative curator, his research direction and hobby, is "coins and arms". Sir Jones has studied nearly 20 years' coins and arms in British Museum, and has successfully done many exhibitions about this.

It seemed that this hobby seemed more like his gentlemanly manner. "But after being a curator, he flew around all day and had no time to do the research." he said with a smile and shook his head.

After Jones took office in 2001, the museum launched many new galleries to be re opened to the public free of charge. "Now we have about 20 million spectators a year, more than half from countries outside the UK".

At the same time, the number of overseas tours such as "coding and decoding" is increasing. "We hope more people will see our exhibition".

V&A and China's exhibition program has been put into operation in 2014. "In November this year, we held the Chinese imperial robe exhibition in London in November this year. Our exhibition of Mahara jbang in India is exhibited in 2013. In 2014, there will be the first comprehensive exhibition of Chinese paintings from the early Qing Dynasty to London."

Expanding audience is the biggest challenge.

First financial daily: it's quite traditional to study "coins and arms", but there are many innovations during your tenure, and this exhibition in Beijing is quite new. How can we combine tradition with innovation?

Mark Jones: V&A has a long history as well as a modern one.

There is no contradiction between tradition and innovation. Contemporary artists can get inspiration from classic works of art.

Just like young people will like old things, and old people will like new things as well.

We also have very contemporary things, photography, architecture and even digital interactive art.

Daily: as the curator of V&A, will the budget be a problem? Especially after you took office, you have increased a lot of free exhibitions. How can you balance your income and expenditure?

Mark Jones: V&A is a national museum. Our revenue comes from three parts: Government contributions, private donations, and some of our business activities, such as selling souvenirs and so on.

So the budget is not the biggest problem I have ever encountered.

In my view, the most challenging thing is how to expand the audience.

Especially the exhibition of contemporary art, usually the audience is a very small group. Some of the contemporary design exhibitions begin with a very small number of visitors. We are faced with the question of how to attract the audience.

Daily: so how do you attract more audience?

Mark Jones: different exhibitions attract different audiences, and the specific measures are different.

For example, the exhibition of "Chinese creative design" held in 2008 attracted many young people and people interested in China.

Now we are holding an exhibition in London about the Russian ballet of Sergei Diyagilev (Serge Diaghilev) in early twentieth Century.

Because he has contacts with artists such as Picasso, we will also join Picasso and other artists in the exhibition, so that people who like ballet will come and attract people who are interested in avant garde art in the early twentieth Century.

Fashion is an important part of our collection. We will often show up in museums, attracting many female audiences.

The same is true of our photographic and architectural exhibitions.

Daily: V&A collection is a great honor for many artists and designers. What is the standard of V&A collection?

Mark Jones: first of all, quality must be a good thing, followed by influence, whether it affects other people's creation or design concept.

We not only collect works of art, but also fashion products such as Vivian Westwood (Vivian Westwood) and Alexander Maqueen (Alexander McQueen).

In addition, they will collect products that people consume everyday, as long as they have enough influence.

Daily: Luis Sharon, curator of the coding and decoding exhibition, is quite young. So what is the requirement of V&A for curators?

Mark Jones: our curators are well-trained and rich museum curators.

We have a special youth curator training program, where young curators work for 5 years before they go to other museums as curators.

Some people may think this is a training for other museums, but in the past 5 years, they still work for us.

In this way, new blood will be injected continuously, otherwise it may be 30 years for everyone to work in one job.

Daily: V&A has a lot of cooperation with China. There have been exhibitions of China Design Now before. How do you evaluate Chinese designers and their works?

Mark Jones: there are many interesting and potential designers in China. The exhibition was very successful and introduced the contemporary Chinese design to the British audience.