The Hilger Collection. ARTIST - COLLECTOR – PUBLIC

30.08.2023 - 29.04.2022

Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana / Slovenija

The international exhibition showcases the art collection of the Vienna-based gallerist and contemporary art collector Ernst Hilger, who for decades has not only collected works of art, but also promoted art and artists. Hilger was president of FEAGA (Federation of European Art Galleries Association) for many years, a member of numerous art fair committees (Art Basel and others) and has also been instrumental in establishing galleries as partners for museums and collectors. He founded his own galleries, amongst others Galerie Ernst Hilger, HilgerBROTKunsthalle and Hilger NEXT, where he presented many artists from his collection, he has collaborated with various curators, held residencies for visiting artists and curators, represented artists at international fairs and foreign exhibitions, been involved in production, publishing and so on.... The project at the Ljubljana City Art Gallery is a story about the allied triangle artist-collector-public that promotes art production and, with the collection as a reflection of space and time, also creates collective memory and enriches wider society.

The concept of the exhibition, with a selection of works by 38 artists and collectives, attempts to follow the logic of the collection itself. In addition to modernism with a focus on Austrian art and various international art movements of the 20th century, a large part of the collection is devoted to contemporary art of the 21st century. It includes both internationally established and many still emerging artists from all over the world and is increasingly devoted to countries that are less present on the international art map.

The installation highlights some of the prominent parts of the collection, mostly together with the works of artists Hilger collects particularly systematically, beginning with Austrian artists with a focus on modernism (especially Hans Staudacher, Oswald Oberhuber, Arnulf Rainer). This is followed by Italian artists, from Modernism (Lucio Fontana) to contemporary practices (for example, Flavio Favelli), from which the exhibition then expands to other international, mainly contemporary art productions (Russia, Bulgaria, Iran, South Africa, Iceland). It brings together works that refer to Conceptual Art and its tradition (Joseph Kosuth, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Ivan Moudov and others), Pop Art and its contemporary derivatives (Jim Dine, Jacques Monory, Mel Ramos, Erró and others), as well as works that deal with pressing social issues with particular sensitivity. The latter address a range of current issues – from various forms of discrimination, migrations, nationalisms, questions of separation, belonging and the collective (Šejla Kameric, Peterson Kamwathi, Anastasia Khoroshilova, Cameron Platter, Sara Rahbar, IRWIN and others) to the question of cities and urbanisation (Ángel Marcos, Miha Štrukelj, Vasilena Gankovska and others), to dilemmas related to the impact of contemporary technologies on the future of society (Patricia Piccinini, Ian Burns), to works that simultaneously delve into the poetics of perception and temporality (William Kentridge) and explore forms of our perceptiveness and understanding of the visible (Ivana Franke).


[Quelle: Einladung]