Art collector Eloisa Haudenschild has zipped into the city with her collection of contemporary Chinese photographs and videos.

The exhibition, entitled "Zooming into Focus," will be on display at the Shanghai Art Museum until March 28.

The exhibit is composed of more than 50 works by 14 artists -- including Zhang Peili, dean of China Academy of Fine Arts's new media department; Zhao Bandi, known for his series of photos with a stuffed panda; and many others who have been featured at the Venice Biennale, the Shanghai Biennale, Documenta Kassel and other leading international events.

"Visual arts in China, after 20 years of development, have joined the mainstream," said Li Xiangyang, the museum's executive director.

"The popularity of home videos has made video art accessible to more people, and, in turn, has pushed the development of the novel art form since the early 1990s," curator Li Xu added.

Eloisa and Chris Haudenschild, from the United States, began buying contemporary Chinese photographs and videos a few years ago.

"I never resell any piece," Eloisa Haudenschild said. "Instead of keeping them to myself, I exhibit them in the United States, Mexico and other places, to share them with the world."

The Haudenschilds cherish their friendships with the artists. Forming such bonds, Eloisa said, is the most important aspect of being a true collector.

"I know each artist personally. I don't like their work for exoticism; rather, because they are great works of art," she said.

Yang Zhenzhong's video "I Will Die" reveals hundreds of people, during candid moments, uttering the words "I will die."

Through the video, Yang reveals the different perceptions people have of death.

The video was shot, with Eloisa Haudenschild's involvement, in many different languages. For the US audience, Yang filmed the video in English and Spanish.

The Haudenschilds initially collected Latin American works of art, but a few years ago began focusing their attention on contemporary Chinese videos and photographs.

The Chinese works of art eventually composed one-third of their collection.

Chinese collectors, however, are less enthusiastic than art hounds in the West about multi media-visual art. They also question the value of such creations. While traditional Chinese paintings often fetch extremely high prices at auctions, collectors shy away from spending thousands of dollars for photographs.

(China Daily February 26, 2004)