Kommentar von Boris Marte
Kommentar von Boris Marte
Kontakt - The Art Collection of Erste Bank Group has been newly organized and is now monitored by a jury of international experts. Since 2004 greater emphasis has been placed on acquiring art from Eastern and South - eastern Europe, works dating from the sixties and seventies and, above all, contemporary works.
In the various countries in which it operates Erste Bank Group has differently oriented art collections that have developed in historically different ways. It therefore seemed sensible to restructure and develop a new concept for the Erste Bank Group’s activities in the field of
collecting: in a first step the existing collection was comprehensively evaluated following which art works were selected and positioned in accordance with the new collecting policy. The geographic focus of this policy lies in the region where Erste Bank Group operates. The goal of the new collection is to emphasize the particular qualities of different practices of art in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe and to present these within the framework of international art tendencies. The collection intends to concentrate less on geographically defined areas and more on topography and on mapping the processes of artistic exchange.
An association founded by Erste Bank Group acquires the works. The collection bears the name "Kontakt" in a reference to the sponsoring program “Kontakt - The Arts and Civil Society Program of Erste Bank Group in Central Europe". This title also refers to Slovak artist Július Koller (born 1939), who gave this name to his much acclaimed performances in the sixties. For this reason the logo of the collection also shows this artist’s handwriting.
The acquisitions and the new collection concept are determined by the decisions of a jury that is independent of Erste Bank Group and acts according to the relevant art - historical,
market - oriented criteria. For the first three years, it was possible to obtain the services of Silvia Eiblmayr (director of the Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck) Georg Schöllhammer (publisher of “springerin - Hefte für Gegenwartskunst”, Vienna), Jiří Ševčík (director of the research centre and archive for Czech art, Prague), Branka Stipancić (curator, Zagreb) und Adam Szymczyk (director of the Kunsthalle Basel) to acquire art on a regular basis and to present “Kontakt - The Art Collection of Erste Bank Group" in a fitting way communicating its presence in a competent and expert manner.The collection is continuously worked through, looked after and curated by Walter Seidl (curator, Vienna). The history of art in Europe, particularly in its eastern and south - eastern regions, consists of numerous partial histories that are difficult to organize within a single, uniform system. One can, however, recognize the development of international avant - gardes in the sixties as a milestone in the history of art. Their conceptual and actionist tendencies developed internationally - in both the West and the East - at the same time and in similar ways.
Therefore, in terms of content, the starting point for the collection relates to the conceptual
tendencies and important artistic directions of the sixties and seventies. The intention is to relate these to contemporary art and to works from the more recent history of art. In addition to the goal of adequately representing the canon of recent European art history, the collection also attempts to incorporate erratic but referential works offering evidence of a continuous production of art that often remained hidden from public view. In addition to a continuous acquisition policy, it is intended that the collection should provide a flexible working platform, for example by supporting individual projects selected by the advisory body.
This platform will not be given an institutional or locally anchored exhibition space but will be publicly visible in the form of curated projects carried out in collaboration with museum institutions and exhibition centres in Central Europe. Among its other aims the intention is that the collection should help to show the artworks within a broader context in the countries from which they come. The first Austrian presentation will be held in spring 2006 in MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna.