Upon entering Labor, spectators are met with a mural that reads “Modelo Económico” (Economic Model) on its façade. This is the entrance of Héctor Zamora’s latest solo exhibition “Delirio” which ran through March 18th in Mexico City. The yellow and orange wall on which the words sit refers to commercial murals common in Mexico that advertise various products and services.
There are vast inequalities within the art world: while young artists compete for low-paying gigs, and small galleries struggle to break even, auction houses and other secondary market sellers make exorbitant profits and blue-chip galleries sell out their booths before an art fair opens. These unsustainable inequalities are the motives behind Collecteurs’ ethical considerations, as well as those of many other organisations advocating for fairer conditions for cultural workers.
At Collecteurs we believe that the blockchain can become a tool to promote a more transparent, equal, and just art world. We turned to one of the experts on the issue and opened up our inbox to receive comments from our members. Our very own Eser Coban compiled a list of your questions, including: “How can artists benefit from blockchain technology?“, “What are DAO’s?, ” What are blockchain wallets and why do we need them?” “What are gas fees?” and, “How do you see blockchain changing capitalism?“, to be answered in a 45 minute interview.
Several institutions make meaningful acquisitions during ARCO Madrid, and an artificial intelligence’s re-imagining of Vermeer’s painting Girl With a Pearl Earring is taking the old master painting’s place at the Maurithuis museum in The Hague.
A fraudster art dealer ends up in jail in Madrid, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation sends a cease-and-desist letter to Louis Vuitton regarding their illegal use of Mitchell’s paintings.
In previous articles on Collecteurs, we have addressed the role and responsibilities of institutional directors. Tasked with representing an institution, securing funding, and important organizational structures, the position of director is a demanding task. What happens when it all goes wrong? In this series, we uncover stories of crime, desperation, political defiance, and corruption in museum leadership.
In the fourth installment of Land, Art; a column devoted to the aggressive advance of climate change and the relationship of climate and art, editor Àngels Miralda investigates how society’s changing stance towards energy is affecting the legacy of American Minimalism. Last year saw the Hamburger Bahnhof turn off the lights on a historic Dan Flavin due to the German state’s requests to save energy. What does this mean for the legacies of groundbreaking artists such as Jenny Holzer, James Turell, Carlos Cruz-Diez, or other artists whose works depend on energy?
NFTs are becoming institutionalized, Greece is actually trying to export more antiquities, and more information on how you can help Syria and Turkey during this continued emergency.
In the Second Installment of our column on object repatriation and cultural restitution, the Collecteurs team asks: why can’t the owners of the Benin Bronzes simply return them? The Bronzes are frequently in the news as a flagship case for repatriation, but what does this mean to collectors, and what is at stake? At Collecteurs, this discussion ties into one of our key values to openly discuss the ethics of collecting. In this column, we keep you updated on past and ongoing repatriation cases and frame what they mean in the global art economy. And so, we ask, why are the Benin Bronzes scattered around the globe, and what is preventing them from returning home?
Today on the Agenda: a view from the Tate Modern is a nuisance, chargers against a former Louvre director for fraud and smuggling still stand, and—have sanctioned Russian Oligarchs been aided by U.S. auction houses?
In previous articles on Collecteurs, we have addressed the role and responsibilities of institutional directors. Tasked with representing an institution, securing funding, and important organisational structures, the position of director is a demanding task. What happens when it all goes wrong? In this series, we uncover stories of crime, desperation, political defiance, or corruption in museum leadership.
On the 27th of January, Swiss artist Julian Charrière published a video of his work And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire (2019). The image features a three-layered fountain ablaze with flames against a dark background. In the caption he reveals that Instagram users tagging him on a recent campaign by the luxury fashion brand Zadig & Voltaire had alerted him to the striking resemblance of this piece to the company’s current marketing campaign.