"Connection" - Exhibition on Corporate Collections from the Netherlands (video)
From April 1st to May 5th, the outdoor gallery of the Łazienki Królewski Museum will present 63 artworks originating from art collections of businesses and organizations in the Netherlands. The initiative for this exhibition was taken by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The exhibition takes place in the framework of the Dutch presidency of the Council of the European Union and refers to one of the three focus points of the Dutch EU presidency: I.e. a stronger connection in the EU with civil society.
The exhibition is curated by Krzysztof Pasztor, who has been resident choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet since 2003. He combines this function with his position as director of Polski Balet Narodowy, the Polish National Ballet. He chose “Connection” as the central theme of the exhibition.
Pasztor: On one hand this exhibition should show how art can be an incentive for inspiring exchanges between people. On the other hand the common theme of the exposed works is a liaison appearing in many different forms: from abstract to realistic, between humans, between humans and nature, between hospitals and their patients and between abstract and applied art. What is also very important is that the exhibition stimulates the viewer's imagination.
In the Netherlands there are dozens of companies and institutions with an art collection. The size of their collections ranges from 70 to 25 000 works of art. Their motives for collecting are diverse, but go beyond pure beautification of blank walls. Corporate communication and corporate identity are driving forces, though also the fact that art encourages reflection, art inspires art and connects organizations with "the outside world". What the collections have in common is: they play an important role in the business model of the company or organization, and they are constructed with a passion for the arts.
Over 50 companies with an art collection are connected within "the Netherlands Association of Corporate Art Collections” (The VBCN). The VBCN is an association of companies, organizations and institutions that, in addition to their core activities, collect (contemporary) art. The association is a platform where curators and art advisors of corporate art collections exchange expertise, work together and go into dialogue with representatives from e.g. the museum, commercial or artists’ circuits.
The exhibition that will be shown at the outdoor gallery consist of 63 works, from the art-collections of 20 Dutch companies (members of VBCN). The exhibition gives an overview of the variety and quality of Dutch corporate collections, as well as some background information about the works and the collections they come from.
In addition to this exhibition, a conference on the topic "Corporate Art Collections" will take place at the Royal Łazienki Museum on April 14th in the Royal Theatre in the Old Orangery.
