What was the idea behind the Chinese Art Awards?
We had the original idea a few years back but we started to implement it early this year after the recent market turmoil revealed the need for more citizenship from banks. In addition, given Société Générale’s limited scale and scattered set-up in Asia, raising the bank's corporate profile over the long term required original ideas showing genuine commitment to our local communities. These initiatives can have a lasting impact on our image and generate significant employee involvement.

What was your role in the Chinese Art Awards?
My first task was to conceptualise the project and to convince people across all the business lines of its capacity to raise our profile and develop client relationships while being in line with the Group's corporate culture. Then I had to reassure people inside Société Générale that it was possible to get the first award announced before December 2010.
Once the project was approved, my role was to coordinate all the different parties, set the rules and recruit a jury of art experts.

What did the jury think of the level of the submissions? Did they have a difficult task choosing the winners?
The jury only met each other in Beijing a few days before the final decision was made. Before that their discussions took place via phone or email. Many of them had already expressed their surprise at the number of truly interesting submissions. When they met to pick the two winners from the 22 nominees exhibited in the gallery, there was a lot of intense debate on how to position the prize. It was relatively easy to identify the five best works but narrowing it down from there was harder. But they go there in the end!

What was the public reaction, in terms of participation and the vote for the winners?
The public vote was a big surprise. Despite limited communication and a short voting period of 3 weeks, we received 12,000 votes. I suppose that, given China’s size, friends of the artists were called to vote massively. The "public voted prize" winner gathered close to 50% of the total number of public votes.

Did you have a personal favourite among the shortlist for the prizes?
I did have two favourites indeed, but I quite liked a few others too. One of my favourites turned put to be the Grand Jury prize winner but the other one only got one jury vote. That is the beauty of art: it is so subjective that everyone will always find admirers.

What can you tell us about the exhibitions taking place in 2011?
As far as art awards go, our award is unique because it offers all 22 nominees a place on worldwide exhibition tour. This is difficult to manage but very valuable for the artists! We had a hard time convincing our first gallery but it was then easier for other cities and we even got calls at the end from galleries in Brussels and Amsterdam that were willing to host the award's nominees for an additional exhibition.
The exhibition tour started in Beijing on December 9 and will then go to Shanghai (at the Shanghai Library, Jan 8-16, 2011), Taipei (Feb 2011), Hong Kong (March 2011), Tokyo (March 2011), Paris (Mid April 2011) and Singapore (May 2011 TBC).

Do you intend to repeat this operation? When?
Yes, we intend to make this a yearly event. It may change its geographic scope one day but it has to continue in order to establish a reputation and gain respect in the art world. This is how Société Générale is going to establish its reputation as a "Citizen Bank" that shares passion and nurtures talents in local communities. Almost all of the members of the Jury have already confirmed their desire to sign up for next year again!

Has this competition had a positive impact on Societe Generale’s image in Asia?
The Chinese Art Awards has had very good media coverage since its inception. It also raised interest among employees and the exhibition tour will further enhance the Group’s profile in the Asian markets and Europe. We are now starting a new media campaign to present the winners, and more "private client events" are planned. There ware also 2000 public visitors to the Beijing exhibition on the first weekend. If this pace is maintained, around 100,000 people will see the SG Chinese Art Awards 2010 during the exhibition tour.

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The jury’s Grand Prize, worth €15,000, was awarded to the Chinese artist Jiang Pengyi for his work titled Unregistered City NO.2.

The other two winners, also Chinese, are Luo Haiming, who was awarded the jury’s Special Prize, and Liu Xianfeng, who won the Public Prize. They received prize money of €7,000 each.

The winning works of art were varied in nature. Jiang Pengyi’s Unregistered City NO.2 is part of a series of photos that aims to reduce the size of a city into a perpendicular plane in order to project a dilapidated scene resembling a ravaged landscape. Luo Haiming’s video, titled Fang Grain Rain, depicts a man carrying out agricultural tasks on a farm in the Kuaijishan region. As for Liu Xianfeng, his work was a painting called I Feel That You Are Leaning on My Shoulders, which refers to China’s controversial transformation into a consumer society.

For more information, visit the Awards website