Structure
Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Bank Group was formed in 2004 as an “Association for the Promotion of Central, East and Southeast European Art.” The aim of the “Kontakt” collection is to create new standards in the appreciation of contemporary art from these regions. The collection is being developed on a sound art-historical foundation and conceived with a long-term perspective and market-oriented objectives. It focuses on specific local forms of art practice emerging from Central, Southern and Southeastern Europe into the international field.The Art Advisory Committee
The art advisory committee makes decisions regarding the purchase of new artwork before the background of a consistent conception and exhibition policy. Hereby emphasis is put on an involvement with specific aspects of current artistic creation in Central, Southern and Southeastern Europe. The distinctive personal approaches of the individual members allow for the differentiated treatment of concrete thematic fields and for the development of areas of emphasis within the collection.
The committee members:
Silvia Eiblmayr is an art historian and the director of the Galerie im Taxispalais in Innsbruck (A). From 1988 to 2004 she worked as a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, at the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne and at Zurich University. She has been a visiting professor at London University, the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the University of Arts and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria. She has published numerous texts on modern and contemporary art including Die Frau als Bild – Der weibliche Körper in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts (Woman as Picture – The Female Body in 20th Century Art) Dietrich-Reimer Verlag, Berlin, 1993.
Georg Schöllhammer is a culture journalist and curator. As editor-in-chief of springerin – Hefte für Gegenwartskunst Schöllhammer has for many years devoted his attention to cultural themes in Central Europe. From 1988 to 1994 he wrote for the Austrian daily newspaper Der Standard. Since 1992 Schöllhammer has lectured on the theory of contemporary art as a visiting professor at the University of Arts and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria. Additionally, he served as curator of the international cooperative project translocation (new) media/art, as co-curator of the festival du bist die welt at the Wiener Festwochen in 2001 and of exhibitions in Yerevan and Sofia in 2002. He is the editor of a series of publications for documenta 12 that will appear beginning in 2005.
Jiří Ševčík was born in Czechoslovakia in 1940. From 1962 to 1965 he served as editor-in-chief of the magazine Architektura CSR. He taught at the Institute for the Theory and History of Art and Architecture at the Prague School of Architecture from 1966 to 1989. From 1990 to 1993 he was head curator of the Gallery of the City of Prague, and from 1993 to 1996 he was director of the modern and contemporary art collection in the National Gallery in Prague. Since 1996 he has been vice-rector of the Academy of Applied Art in Prague, and since 1997 he has headed the Research Center and Archive of Czech Art.
Branka Stipančić is an art critic and freelance art historian who lives and works in Zagreb (Croatia). From 1983 to 1993 she was a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, and from 1993 to 1996 she was director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Zagreb. Exhibitions she has curated include Baltic Times at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb and at the Galerie im Taxispalais (2001), Chinese Whispers at Apexart in New York (2000), Aspects/Positions at the Museum of the 20 th Century in Vienna (1999), and The Future is Now at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (1999). Her most recent publications include Mangelos nos. 1 to 9 1/2 (Museu Serralves, Porto, 2003) and Connections – Contemporary Artists from Australia (HDLU, Zagreb, 2002).
Adam Szymczyk was born in 1970 in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland. He is a curator and author and currently is director of the Kunsthalle Basel. From 1994 to 1995 he was a curatorial assistant for film and video at the Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw. He was also curator of the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw from 1997 to 2003. In the past decade he has worked on exhibitions and publications of and about artists such as Pawel Althamer, Douglas Gordon, Susan Hiller, Job Koelewijn, Edward Krasinski, Claudia and Julia Mueller, Gregor Schneider, Piotr Uklanski and Krzysztof Wodiczko. He has curated numerous group exhibitions, including Roundabout (CCA Warsaw, 1998), Amateur (with co-curators Mark Kremer and Charles Esche, Konstmuseum Göteborg, 2000), Painters’ Competition (Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biala, 2001) and Hidden in a Daylight (together with Joanna Mytkowska and Andrzej Przywara, Cieszyn, 2003).
