BERLIN.- 10 years
me Collectors Room Berlin: This anniversary will be celebrated from 29 February to 17 May 2020 with an exhibition that takes a highly personal look into both, the activities of the foundation and the Olbricht Collection.
Flows of energy pass through us, moving us, our world, and everything in our universe. Thomas Olbricht has often also described his experience and life with art as a flow of energy that he likes to share with as many people as possible. This art space in fact took its name after this wish of his: moving energies – me Collectors Room Berlin.
Moving energies, or energy flows resulting from the interplay of diverse objects, genres and epochs, also characterize the eclecticism of the Olbricht Collection. Exhibits, which include model fire engines, Art Nouveau objects, romantic landscape paintings, designer furniture, African wood sculptures, stamps, globes and Old Masters still life paintings as well as the Renaissance and Baroque objects of the Wunderkammer and, above all, Contemporary Art. These objects are united in the collector’s private rooms. French Art Nouveau vases are grouped before of a romantic sunset painting by Carl Robert Kummer; Ewald Mataré’s sculptures are bundled on the shelf next to an abstract colour explosion by Katharina Grosse; and Baroque carved objects are presented against the backdrop of a black and white film still by Cindy Sherman. Some of these seemingly idiosyncratic compositions make up the collector’s highly subjective universe.
In spring 2010, Thomas Olbricht opened the me Collectors Room Berlin, thereby making his collection accessible to the public. In close to twenty exhibitions, individual parts of the collection were presented and explored. The inspiration for these shows, as well as for the acquisition of art for the collection itself, is the result of Olbricht’s travels and visits to exhibitions and art fairs. The subsequent reflection on such encounters and the maturing of concrete formulations predominantly takes place in the private sphere, i.e. at home, amid art, paintings, invitations, auction catalogues and the collecting foci.
These private rooms are recreated in ‘Moving Energies’ in ‘stage sets’ that render the collector’s inspirations and ideas directly accessible. All collection areas, some of which have been a continuous focus for years, others the result of a phasic interest, are united. The areas are presented in the private ‘staged sets’ to better illustrate the multi-faceted creative process of collecting.
Thomas Olbricht began collecting stamps when he was just five years old and is still an avid lover of first day covers from all countries. He has also accompanied American artist Taryn Simon since the beginning of her career and has acquired photographs from all her creative periods. In addition, through decades of meticulous collecting activity, Thomas Olbricht has a complete collection of Gerhard Richter's editions, which include more than 170 works. As part of the exhibition, a space will be devoted to the abstract works of Richter from the collection. The Wunderkammer, with its precious Renaissance and Baroque objects, is another years-long focus of the collection, as are model fire engines and paper maché plants, which were a permanent fixture in German schools at the turn of the century. The show also includes works from past - partly monographic, partly thematic - presentations. Works by Cindy Sherman, Claire Fontaine, FORT, Thomas Schütte, William N. Copley, Andreas Slominski and Sigmar Polke are juxtaposed with other positions by Pippilotti Rist, Dana Schutz, Alicja Kwade, Timm Ulrichs, Nicole Eisenman, Katharina Grosse, Karin Kneffel, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Albrecht Dürer and John Wesley, which have not previously been exhibited.
It is precisely from the synopsis of all these collection areas in his home that Thomas Olbricht draws propelling energy time and again. With ‘Moving Energies’, the collector provides visitors with a unique and personal insight into his collection.
