Association

In 2004, the word “Kontakt”—which exists in this orthographic form in German, Czech and Slovak and is equivalent to the English word “contact”—was chosen as the name for a new collection, research, and exhibition format whose activities in the field of art were to be carried out in a coherent manner with respect to both content and method. “Kontakt” pays tribute to the work of Slovak artist Július Koller, who used the word in his anti-happenings and work series from the late 1960s onwards, ultimately leaving behind one of the most distinctive conceptual art oeuvres in the region of former Czechoslovakia. Concurrently, Czech artist Jiří Kovanda used the term “Kontakt” in order to hint at the interrupted communication between art and the public as well as between the Communist Bloc and the Western world.

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 into important cultural documents and testimonies of an era that witnessed enormous transformation as part of coming to terms with the demands of a contemporary political, social, and economic reality that is in constant flux and challenges the individual to think in new ways about society and about art’s mandate.

From the very beginning, every single purchase has been discussed and decided upon by an art advisory committee consisting of Silvia Eiblmayr, Georg Schöllhammer, Jiří Ševčík, Branka Stipančić and Adam Szymczyk. In 2004, at the initiative and under the guidance of Boris Marte, this group developed the framework for Kontakt’s collecting policy. The common understanding amongst these individuals determines the interpretation, narratives, and context of a whole generation of artists from many different countries by re-situating art from the respective regions within the international context of art history.