KONTAKT COLLECTION

On the initiative of Erste Group and in the interest of its independence, Kontakt was set up as a non-profit art association in order to collect artworks and secure a cultural heritage through professional restoration and conservation, to undertake research on the represented artists and art communities, to realize exhibitions, and to engage in extensive publication projects. Ever since its inception, Kontakt has worked with artists whose output had not been adequately researched, stored, or documented due to a lack of local and international commitment, thereby building archives that needed to be built in order to enable future generations to work on a new canon of art history. In the context of this endeavor, many of the neo avant-garde works and succeeding artistic practices represented in the collection reflect the changes in the social and political climate of a particular region over several decades. What used to be considered dissident art in former times has thus been turned..

Primary location: Vienna Austria