Sylvain Lévy

Sylvain Lévy and his wife Dominique Lévy established the dslcollection in Paris in 2005 to focus on contemporary Chinese art. It now represents 200 leading Chinese avant-garde artists, and is widely considered one of the most important private collections of Chinese contemporary art. The collection includes works by some of China’s most well-known contemporary artists, such as Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaodong, and Yang Fudong.

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Lévy’s passion for art began in the 1980s, and he has been exclusively collecting contemporary Chinese art since 2005. He was inspired by Peggy Guggenheim and raised with the Castelli Method of collecting. He is known for his ability to spot emerging talent and has been instrumental in promoting Chinese contemporary art to a global audience.

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As a collector, Lévy has always been innovative in his approach to art. He has been an early adopter of technology, experimenting and evolving his use of digital tools to connect with his audience. In 2011, dslcollection became the first art collection to have an app on the Apple Store, and since then it has been regularly communicating with its followers through social media, email and e-magazines.

Lévy’s use of technology doesn’t stop there. He has also embraced virtual reality (VR) and gaming to create immersive and interactive experiences for his audience. In 2012, dslcollection posted a 3D virtual exhibition curated by Martina Koppel Yang in a virtual Grand Palais on YouTube. With special glasses, visitors could move around the works and see them in virtual space. The most advanced VR project is currently at the new Pingshan Museum in Shenzhen, where Lévy holds a position on the museum board. The museum has created a room dedicated to the dslcollection, where visitors can walk through the collection, visiting artworks and perceiving their fellow visitors around them as avatars—all in virtual reality.

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Lévy’s approach to technology is a combination of the personal and technological; the physical and the virtual; the contemporary and the future. His focus on entertainment, immersion, and interactivity is a breath of fresh air in the art world and has helped to bring contemporary Chinese art to a wider audience.

The art world is in a state of digital transformation, with many private art collections and museums turning to technology to bring art to a wider audience. Virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence are just some of the technologies being used to create immersive and interactive experiences for visitors. With the use of technology, art is no longer limited to physical spaces and can now be enjoyed by a wider audience, making art more accessible to people from all backgrounds. As Lévy’s example shows, technology can be a powerful tool for art collectors and museums to engage with their audience and promote art to a wider audience.