Interview: Julia Stoschek

Exhibition view Exhibition view

What is your relation to contemporary art?

Since my early childhood I felt a great attraction to art in general. My parents also had a great appreciation for design, for example.

But art, in particular contemporary art, deals with matters and themes of my generation and what fascinates me the most about contemporary art is precisely this urgent feeling of here and now, of immediacy, of contemporaneity.

And of course it is also interesting to have the opportunity to be able to meet the artists in person, to talk to him/her about his/her art, to learn about their specific viewpoint on their work, the working process, life at large etc..

Why have you concentrated your collection on the new media (photo, video and installation)?

Maybe it’s because video and photography are an important means of expression of my generation, I grew up with these media. For example every event in my childhood was recorded by camera. I can really identify with these kinds of artistic expressions.

Exhibition view

Which artist was the first you bought and when?

Pep Agut: Mon ombre est un mur, 1996 (Oil and mixed media on canvas, 184,5 x 266 x 9,5 cm) in 2002

Why have you decided to show your collection to the public?

I have a lot of 3 or 4-channel-installations in the collection and it’s quite difficult to even think to install these installations in a private space! And I also do believe that it is very important that art can be seen by the public and I am in the lucky position to be able to share it with other people, having found the building in Düsseldorf and opening the collection last summer.

How was the reaction from the established art institutions, when you decided to open an exhibition space?

We had really positive reactions on the exhibition and the exhibition space itself!

Most of the time we heard that we are a really important addition to the museums and institutions in Germany because of our focus on media and installation art.

What is the last work you have acquired?

Terence Koh Sprungkopf (digital video, 01:42 min., 2006)

How do you keep updated on upcoming artists?

Oh, there are different ways to keep updated: of course I travel a lot and go to galleries, in particular to galleries in the US and Berlin, but also to the big art fairs, like Frieze, Art Basel and so on.

Which contemporary artist you do not have in your collection is number one on the want list?

If I tell you that, he might stay on my want list forever, don’t you think?

What is the future vision for your collection?

I do hope that we will successfully launch a catalogue in the not so far away future and besides working on that we are already planning the next exhibition and discussing a couple of requests for presentations of parts of my collection in other institutions.

Besides this day to day excitement I do hope that the collection becomes a destination for all those interested in contemporary arts, especially young people and students!

Thank you