On December 15th, Passerelles numériques Singapore organised its first fundraising event! A paintings auction night – cocktail in a Vietnamese art gallery.
For its first anniversary, PN Singapore received an amazing present… that brought together Natwest markets, ArtBlue Studio and Virgile Viasnoff our auctioneer.
To relive this evening let’s discover the cross interview of those who made this auction night possible, namely:
-[GL] Gonzague Lepoutre, Chief Operating Officer (Asia and Pacific) at Natwest Markets ,
-[ArtBlue] Jacques and Phuong Renaud, owners of the ArtBlue Studio ,
-[VV] Virgile Viasnoff, researcher in Biophysics at NUS (National University of Singapore) and at CNRS (France), our auctioneer.
-[PN] Maud Lhuillier (Asia Director) and Anne-Isabelle de Gentile (Asia External Relations & Development Manager) for Passerelles numériques.
Gonzague Lepoutre
Jacques et Phuong (ArtBlue Studio)
Virgile Viasnoff
[PN] What has been the genesis of the project?
[GL] Due to recent restructuring Natwest markets had 30 nice paintings from conference rooms, executive offices and reception areas we could not keep as our office was much smaller than before. Most of these paintings were from a renowned Vietnamese artist Le Thiet Cuong, but also from Jean-François Debongnie and some other artists. When we started to think about what to do with them, it was quite natural to think that they should be donated to a charity.
The coincidences of social life lead me to encounter at the same party Phuong, owner of the well known Vietnamese art gallery ArtBlue studio and Laurence Huret board member of Passerelles numériques. It seemed almost meant to be… very quickly it became clear that it was the ideal combination around one common theme “Vietnam” as PN operates in 3 Asian countries including Vietnam.
[ArtBlue] Phuong and I have been committed to help people in Vietnam for years in many ways as Phuong’s parents live in the North of Vietnam and often tell us of people in need around them. Our gallery in Tiong Bahru, offers us the place to do more. The highlight of our year is when we can collaborate with an NGO such as PN to spread the awareness and join effort to create a significant impact and support projects.
So, we had the expertise, and the space, Natwest Markets had the collection, we had the charity, all stars were aligned to make an event happen!
[PN] Indeed! But we still needed to find our auctioneer! Then the name of Virgile Viasnoff came up…
[PN] Virgile you accepted the challenge to play a key role in the event: auctioneer! Could you tell us about you: what is your job? Is it somehow linked to that type of performance or skills?
[VV] I work as a researcher in Biophysics at the National University of Singapore and at CNRS (France). I study the interplay between mechanics and biology. I am not an auctioneer nor a person who works in anyway with art. However, large audience in conferences and classes exposes me everyday to the need of “cheering the crowd” and raising some interest and enthusiasm on topics that may somehow sound obscure…
[PN] Who asked for your help? What was the trigger that convinced you to accept? Had you heard about PN’ mission before?
[VV] I was approached by my friend Gonzague Lepoutre who mentioned that 2 members of PN [Maud and Anne-Isabelle, editor’s note] seemed to have enjoyed my oral skills during a couple of public speeches I gave… In fact I really never knew why they picked me up. I had never heard of PN before. But I immediately accepted because Gonzague is my friend, because PN’s mission convinced me, because I liked the idea of transforming an artwork donation from a bank into opportunity of education for the underserved, and lastly because I felt desperately challenged by the idea of running an auction. Never done it before, no idea how to do it, minimal time to prepare… That is the sort of challenges I like!
[PN] And how did you handle the pressure? We are aware the Phuong warned you 95% of the success relied on you…
[VV] Well, before the event, my days were so packed that I did not have time to think about pressure. On the D day, I looked at the paintings, thought about the students. Artblue studio was really a nice place, and the moment the event started I could feel the vibe from the audience… So no, I did not really feel any pressure. Regarding the warning from the gallery I took it as a spur. You know a week ahead of the auction I had to defend a 10 million budget proposal during a 10 min presentation. Just before my presentation started, my boss told me, as a joke I hope: if you fail I fire you. I can tell you I enjoyed the auction a thousand times more than the presentation!
[PN] From the genesis of the idea, to its realization, in few weeks, there has been a lot to discover, organise, obtain, overcome on your end’s and on PN’s. It has not been a bed of roses. If you had the opportunity to do it again… would you?
[GL] Definitely I would do it. It is fair to say that it has not been a walk in the park. But thanks to the dedication and commitment of all of us we managed to overcome every obstacles and doubts!
[VV] Blindly. I enjoyed it so much! It was incredibly stimulating. I felt at ease in the “privacy” of the gallery and people were not only laughing and also quite into generosity. Holding such an event close to Christmas was a great idea.
[ArtBlue] Of course! In fact we are always looking for NGOs who would be interested to work with us, and we hope to build up on our experience and do more and more.
[PN] Has being part of this adventure teached you something?
[GL] It confirmed that charity activities are never easy and always require some risk taking. Nonetheless willpower, teamwork and positive attitude can lead to success.
[VV] When the right people meet in the right timing with an obvious kindness and a strong motivation to help then the sky is the limit. It was a short, intense human experience!
[ArtBlue] The more you give the more you receive.
[PN] For the final word if you had one memory to share regarding this event what would it be?
[GL] The joy… we all felt after the auction!
[VV] Announcing the final amount we raised….way way above the wildest expectations!
[PN] It is time to end the interview and, once more, to turn our mind gratefully to you who decided to trust and support Passerelles numériques in every way you could and made this event not only a reality but a success.
We feel incredibly thankful to Natwest Markets for its generosity, to ArtBlue for its hospitality and to your Virgile for your performance! We could not dream of a better way to celebrate PN Singapore’s first anniversary!
We also want to express our gratitude to our wonderful volunteers* for their effectiveness, to all of those who participated in the auction, to our auditors Deloitte, and to Catherine TAN (MCCY), for answering patiently our questions.
*Our super volunteers were Alice GAUD, Anthony PAIN, Babeth GODARD, Felicia LIM, Laetitia MILLET, Lyn KOH, Marguerite HURET, Paul LACROIX, Thanh-Tuyen NT, Toscane DUMON, Victor LINTERMANS