The project partners were primarily selected on the basis of personal contacts established by the art collector Karlheinz Essl, who considered it important to invite not only institutions in Western Europe, but wanted to involve renowned museums with very different cultural and socio-political backgrounds. The wish to enhance future networking and co-operation and foster intercultural exchanges is one of the main driving forces of the project.
Partner Museums
This exhibition project incorporates a range of different collection concepts. As the ten institutions received the same level of funding, a number of questions arose. Where will the individual museums place their focus? How important is the profile of a collection for its acquisition decisions? Will the decision-makers opt for a range of artists or will they use the entire budget on one single artistic stance?
The resulting acquisition concepts of the eleven institutions – ten participants and the Essl Museum - are marked by great diversity. The range covers anything from a focus on one individual work of art (Tate, MOT) to works that complement the collection focus (MdM, Louisiana), a curatorial exploration of painting at the margins of European art after 1945 (Städel), a themebased concept (MART, MSL) or broad-based acquisitions of young art (MSU, IHC). One thing has become particularly clear: there is a wealth of options for enlarging and enhancing collections, which is an important element that must be fostered and strengthened. “Aspects of Collecting” offers the unique opportunity to compare divergent collecting and purchasing strategies in one exhibition and will encourage the visitors to discover a great wealth of artistic production.
At a time when state-run museums have very limited possibilities of enlarging their collections, this project developed by the Essl Museums is designed to make a contribution to spurring a public debate on the importance of collections and their underlying collecting concepts.
Participating Artists
Lovro Artukovic, Micol Assaël, Miriam Bäckström, Stephan Balkenhol, Martin Barré, Milivoj Bijelic, Zhen Chen, Thea Djordjadze, Simon English, Jan Fabre, Liam Gillick, Group ABS, Ana Hušman, Manisha Jha, Jesper Just, Suhasini Kejrival, Raoul de Keyser, Alem Korkut, Eliseo Mattiacci, Annette Messager, Sarah Morris, Muntean/Rosenblum, Nunzio (Di Stefano), Tal R, Hans Hamid Rasmussen, Anselm Reyle, Pipilotti Rist, Arcangelo Sassolino, Viren Tanwar, Patrick Tuttofuocco, Shiv Verma, Silvio Vujicic, Heimo Zobernig.
Want to see what 24 hours of creative awesomeness look like? Click here.
This news message is supported by The Creative Finder, an online platform for photographers, illustrators, designers, and art directors to promote their portfolios towards new clients and collaborators. Creatives who wish to sign up for an account can save 10% off annual fees with promo code 'designtaxi'.
