Adam Mazur: Do you remember your first acquisition?
Volker Diehl: My very first artwork was a gift by Shigeko Kubota in 1980. Still in my collection. My first purchase was a sculpture by Jaume Plensa, in 1984/85, which I sold later.
What was the impulse behind collecting art?
I understood very early that the relation between an artwork and the owner is a very special dialogue. Art talks to us. And talks to us in different way, when you live with art. It influences our view on the artpiece. Looks different in the morning or the evening, in natuaral or electric light, or depending on our daily mood for example. It can change also by time passing by. It becomes from first moment a very personal relation. Different to a museum visit, where you always keep the distance between the art and the viewer.
How would you describe your collection?
Like my starsign Gemini. Always open-minded, and very curious in many diverse things and objects and people and life in general. My collection reflects this wide attitude, I hope.
Who are other collectors important to you?
That would be a long, long list here. But I can describe maybe. I don´t like loud and entertaining art, which sometimes looks like amusement park. I like more silent and side ways collecting. Leaving the famous mainstream is more interesting to me. There are many, but I would point out one collector couple here, which I always admired.
Herbert and Dorothy Vogel[1] never had a big budget. Always normal salaries from their jobs working for Postal Service, and Dorothy in a University library. I highly recommend the film about there life and collection.
They were once described as “proletarian art collectors,” worked as civil servants in New York City for more than a half-century while amassing what has been called one of the most important post-1960s art collections in the United States, mostly of minimalist and conceptual art.
Could you name your most personal choice? An artwork that would represent you?
There are several. And at the moment of purchase it is always my favourite work. Maybe because of the excitement. So, more important now is what will I buy next. The last work I purchased was by Polish artist Wojciech Sadley.
How do you work with curators and advisors?
This time I worked with Mark Gisbourne, who is a longtime close friend. And it was very important for me, because my collection is a personal journey through my life. So he is close as a friend, but has the perfect distance to my collection. A view from outside is necessary to structure the concept of the show. Me alone without him, not possible.
What is your impression of the OP ENHEIM show and what makes it important to you?
It was great pleasure to work with wonderful team of the OP ENHEIM. And I was surprised about the result. We couldn’t show the large works of my collection, but surprisingly we could install 81 works. And the rooms are not overloaded. Next week, we will post on our websites and in social media a beautiful film of 12 min. Very excting. So people from all around the world can see the exhibition.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_and_Dorothy_Vogel
Imprint
| Artist | Marc Adrian, AES + F, Martin Assig, Blue Noses, Martin Borowski, Sergej Bratkov, KP Brehmer, Killlian Breier, Hal Busse, Zofia Butrymowicz, Carmen Calvo, Olga Chernysheva, Jhonny LHerisson Cineus, Simon English, Amélie Esterházy, Constantin Flondor, Thomas Florschuetz, Nadine Fortilus, Hermann Goepfert, Ivan Gorshkov, Claudia Hart, Susan Hefuna, Marta Hoepffner, Zhang Huan, Ritzi & Peter Jacobi, Minjung Kim, Shigeko Kubota, Tadaaki Kuwayama, Heinz Mack, Alexander Maximov, Christian Megert, Boris Mikhailov, Christiane Möbus, Vlad Monroe, Paul Neagu, Lev Nussberg, Viktor Novatzki, Jolanta Owidzka, Aidan Salakhova, Gregor Schneider, Sudarshan Shetty, Alexey Shulgin, Turi Simeti, Ioana Maria Sisea, Tomoko Takahashi, Richard Tuttle, Grazia Varisco, Jef Verheyen, Herman De Vries, Günter Weseler, Tom Wesselmann |
| Exhibition | Every Truth has Four Corners |
| Place / venue | OP ENHEIM, Wrocław, Poland |
| Dates | 19 March – 6 June 2021 |
| Curated by | Mark Gisbourne |
| Photos | Alicja Kielan |
| Website | openheim.org/ |
| Index | Adam Mazur AES + F Aidan Salakhova Alexander Maximov Alexey Shulgin Amélie Esterházy Blue Noses Boris Mikhailov Carmen Calvo Christian Megert Christiane Möbus Claudia Hart Constantin Flondor Grazia Varisco Gregor Schneider Günter Weseler Hal Busse Heinz Mack Herman De Vries Hermann Goepfert Ioana Maria Sisea Ivan Gorshkov Jef Verheyen Jhonny LHerisson Cineus Jolanta Owidzka Killlian Breier KP Brehmer Lev Nussberg Marc Adrian Mark Gisbourne Marta Hoepffner Martin Assig Martin Borowski Minjung Kim Nadine Fortilus Olga Chernysheva OP ENHEIM Paul Neagu Richard Tuttle Ritzi & Peter Jacobi Sergej Bratkov Shigeko Kubota Simon English Sudarshan Shetty Susan Hefuna Tadaaki Kuwayama Thomas Florschuetz Tom Wesselmann Tomoko Takahashi Turi Simeti Viktor Novatzki Vlad Monroe Volker Diehl Zhang Huan Zofia Butrymowicz |