CALL ME ON SUNDAY is the second of several parts of the long-term series CCC (curators collectors collaborations) initiated by Krinzinger Gallery - a starting point for the interconnection of international collectors and curators. The exhibition, curated by Viennese curator Ursula Maria Probst, features works from mostly private art collections. Probst provides insights into private spheres, reads art historical and cultural trails and casts a new glance on thoroughly grown collection concepts, paving the way for new ways of understanding them. The exhibition’s title CALL ME ON SUNDAY initially sounds like an appealing invitation to a date, but is actually - ambiguously and distinctly at the same time - referring to a specific moment of personal exchange between the collectors and the curator of the exhibition. On Sundays, when telephonic and electronic communication is at least partly reduced, collectors find the time to indulge in their passion for art and are at hand for curators.
As essential protagonists of the contemporary art scene, collectors are equally important to its functioning as artists, gallery owners, curators or art critics. But which group of persons does this diffuse and often generically used term refer? An obvious, if somewhat limited approach to answering this question is offered by the US-American art magazine “ARTnew’s” list of the world’s 200 most influential collectors. A different approach to the topic is reflecting on the question of possible intentions behind the practice of collecting art: Similar to the artistic discourse, the debate on collecting functions via various subfields - much like in today’s globally expanding art scene, parallel worlds arise. For Probst, much intellectual excitement lies in establishing the connections between specific categories of meaning and in discerning varying and distinct practices of collecting in order to better understand the interlocking of artistic, individual and economic potential. In private collections, works of art are frequently assigned their value not only on the basis of their aesthetic qualities, but also by their underlying, individual history. Artworks as aesthetic objects react directly to certain cultural demands, providing a ritualized strategy of coping with the challenges of an ever-changing world. In the context of collecting the term “spleen” comes to mind: it usually describes the habit of eccentrics, to exaltedly and ceaselessly pursue a certain idea. Personal passions and/or authentic obsessions thus are essential components of those art collections, the exhibition CALL ME ON SUNDAY draws upon. Inspired by the consequent attitudes of the collectors Valeria Napoleone (London) and Alexia Stuefer (Vienna), who limit their collections to artworks by female artists, CALL ME ON SUNDAY focuses on 77 artistic positions by female artists. The Krinzinger Projekte’s exhibitions spaces therefore display oeuvres of international artists in private collections and arranges them in a dramaturgically intertwined setting.
The exhibition also makes references to the legendary show “Eccentric Abstraction” by US-American curator and critic Lucy Lippard, that took place in New York in 1966 and - deviating from what the title would suggest - addressed the subjects of strong, autonomous, female corporeality and lifestyle. Our notions of physicalness, intimacy and sexual identity have radically changed in the past two decades - female artists no longer have to strike up the old anthems of empowerment per se. The curator’s decision to exclusively display female artists nevertheless claims a reinterpretation of feminist and postfeminist issues and implications. Sculptures, photographies, paintings, videos and performances form a transmedial project and allow for CALL ME ON SUNDAY to unfold a striking contextual and material presence. Never before have female artists been more successful than today - a fact, that is reflected as a meta-phenomenon in the collections partaking in the exhibition. In spite of that, international art rankings are still dominated by male artists. Intertwining several thematic strings, CALL ME ON SUNDAY can thus be seen as a pleading for an intensified analytical plunge into the ever-changing practices of collecting and as a clear accentuation of the desire for an autonomous and self-determined way of living.
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© Galerie Krinzinger
