ArtReview: AR: So do you tend to look for patterns in terms of what
Why did you decide to set up Project Space 176? you collect?
Anita Zabludowicz: AZ: There has got to be a pattern. There is a certain strand
There comes a time when a collector has to think about in the collection, and it is tangible. It is probably based
the fact that there is no space on the walls. We had to put on the environment, basically, what is going on around us
the art in storage, which is crazy. It’s not fair to the artist, and what the artists are picking up on at the time. I really
and I felt that the art needed to be exposed – it is emerging feel that each artist I try to bring into the collection is
art, young art, and it needs a platform. brilliant. It’s not just good art, it’s brilliant art. Sometimes
there will be something that will just fit into the collection
AR: Did you think about that when you originally started so beautifully that I will buy it. Then after two or three
collecting? pieces, if we decide to continue with the artist, then I will
start to meet the artist, because it then becomes serious: it
AZ: No. When you start collecting you don’t know you becomes an investment, and you are almost like a patron.
are an art collector, you’re just buying lovely art. But then You really want to look after the artist. Then you start to
it becomes a bit like a disease: it’s very addictive and it’s know the artist and know more about the work and maybe
a huge passion. Once you start, there is no stopping, and even try to commission work.
suddenly you find that you are not just buying art, but that
you are an art collector. AR: The collection then reflects your own personality in
a way. How do you deal with that when you are bringing
AR: There must be a moment of change when you move things into a public space, like this one?
from collecting things for yourself to wanting to show
them to the public. EN: That’s where inviting other people to draw out their
interpretations of it comes in. I am now quite involved
AZ: I just made the decision that I was going to find some with the collection, and I know Anita quite well, so I really
space and show the art, and that was it. It was after a lot of can see how the collection reflects her. But it did take me
thought. Museums don’t like to show collections, so you a few months to really see the way she works.
can’t really expose your work through museums – it was
just a dead end. So I thought if no one was going to help AZ: I am a very good listener. I do listen when people
me then I would have to do it myself. explain and describe, and when I don’t understand
something. That’s when I really want to understand
AR: Are you really showing it as a collection or as a series something, and I work very hard to try and work it out.
of curated shows and themes? Take Ryan Gander’s art, for example – I find it so hard
to understand his work; it took months and months, and
AZ: It’s curatorial-based. It is not about the collections finally we bought our first work about six months ago.
as such – it’s about the artists, particularly emerging art,
because that is the field that I have really concentrated on EN: But I suppose going back to the question of how you
for all these years. take something so personal to the public, the real answer
might be that essentially each work stands up on its own
Elizabeth Neilson: anyway. As a collection they are one thing, but as a work
We’re offering the collection as a kind of resource of art they are also individual. So if you look at it like that,
centre. We are inviting artists to come and use what we they are strong in their own right, so you won’t be asking
have – which is this fantastic building and this fantastic people to come and draw an exhibition from them; they
collection – and so we are opening up to lots of different will be able to find their own way through the collection.
interpretations.
AR: Do you imagine that this space could kind of move
AR: Do you think, in terms of what you collect or are away from your collection in the future – that it could have
interested in, things have changed now that you have got shows that are almost completely independent of it?
a public space?
AZ: I like the idea, you know. For instance we are doing
AZ: It’s funny, but from day one it’s been the same. Only a show with an artist called Gerry Fox. I don’t own one
art changes. I suppose the environment changes and the piece of his work, but even if we don’t own his work, I feel
art changes according to the environment. So, in 1995– like he is part of our collection, because he is here and
96 it was about the YBAs, that’s when I started and we he is showing at the space and his work fits in with the
were collecting art photography – Wolfgang Tillmans, collection.
Gregory Crewdson, certain German photography – and
it was really exciting. But that was emerging art, that was EN: That is a strong expanded idea of the collection. The
the exciting thing at that time; now we are collecting the collection isn’t just about its holdings.
exciting thing of this time. Every two or three years there is
another pattern. I like moving in that direction, but what I AR: Do you think that adds an extra dimension to you as
also love is not abandoning the artists that I have collected. a collector, in that you can engage with people that you
I try to stay with the artists that I have collected in the past are really interested in but don’t actually necessarily want
until, for whatever reason, I can’t collect them anymore. to own?
Collecting_Zabludowicz.indd 91 6/11/07 11:54:45
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