BEST OF AUSTRIA – Eine Kunstsammlung
Press Conference
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
January 2 to May 10, 2009
Eröffnung: Opening: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 7 PM (by invitation); Open House: 9 PM
How does a European Capital of Culture put together an art collection that does justice to this occasion? Simple: It stages a collection drive.
A European Capital of Culture—and even if only for a year—needs an art collection that is worthy of this honor and that truly bespeaks the national cultural heritage that this city represents. But where are we to come up with these objects (assuming that theft is out of the question)? Lentos and Linz09 decided to organize a collection drive. Our appeal: please be generous in helping the Capital of Culture fulfill its role in a dignified manner.
The response: almost a hundred superb works of art from Austrian collections have been brought together in our Capital of Culture, Linz. More than 30 Austrian museums, foundations and corporate collections from Vienna to Lake Constance have each made three works available. Ranging clear across the stylistic spectrum and along a timeline of many centuries, the works on display showcase this country’s diverse art treasures.
The ideal collection, as the vector sum of diversified potentials. Does such a thing exist? And what might such a collection look like? What selection criteria prevail? According to which standards is the quality of the art assessed?
The matter of selection was intentionally left up to the participants themselves? They were asked to make their own choices in order to let them present the image of their respective institution and permanent collection that seemed most appropriate to them.
Beginning on New Year’s Day 2009 and for four months thereafter, the Lentos will present a temporary, playful, experimental array representing what an ideal art collection might look like. As is the case with most collections, this compilation too is characterized by chance, by personal preference, by financial and spatial feasibility. BEST OF AUSTRIA attests to how diversely and contingently works of art dovetail into an ensemble, and what role the harmonizing force of the institution museum plays thereby. What the works on display here have in common is the high quality of what are, in the broadest sense, national treasures.
BEST OF AUSTRIA tells a story of the intense pleasure of beholding extraordinary sights, and kicks off a debate about the standards and criteria that go into a “best of” show. Are these the most costly, the best known, the most highly publicized pictures and objects that are being exhibited as proxies in Linz? Are they the favorites of directors and head curators looking to spotlight unappreciated masterpieces?
And if the interpretational arc spanned thereby provides a splendid opportunity for disputation about selection, quality, public representation of “national property” and the significance of so-called “cultural heritage”—then so much the better.
Participating Institutions
Albertina, Belvedere, Burgenländische Landesgalerie, Essl Museum, EVN Sammlung, Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Bank-Group, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Landesmuseum Joanneum: Alte Galerie / Neue Galerie, Leopold Museum, Liechtenstein Museum, MAK - Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst /Gegenwartskunst, MUMOK Museum moderner Kunst, MUSA - Museum auf Abruf, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Museum moderner Kunst Kärnten, Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Oberösterreichische Landesmuseen, Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Salzburg Museum - Neue Residenz, Sammlung T-Mobile Austria, Sammlung Verbund, Stift Admont – Museum für Gegenwartskunst, STRABAG Kunstforum, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Vorarlberger Landesmuseum, Wien Museum
Idea/Concept
Linz09, Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz
Publication
A catalog featuring articles by Martin Heller, Rainer Metzger, Franz Schuh and Stella Rollig, and illustrations of all the works in this exhibition is being published by Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz.
Produced jointly by Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz and Linz09 with the support of OMV AG.
Press & Public Relations:
Lentos: Nina Kirsch, nina.kirsch@lentos.at, +43(0)732/7070-3603
Linz09: Pia Leydolt, pia.leydolt@linz09.at, +43(0)732/2009-37
