Issue No. 83 of “Texte zur Kunst” which will be released at the start of the art fair season, addresses the collector. In the past three decades, discernible changes in the manner and actions of a certain group of collectors have emerged. What characterizes this development foremost is the strong focus placed on the collector’s personality. This appears to be a phenomenon where merely the function of collecting as good publicity is at the fore. While collecting art was once a philanthrophic venture of the upper class, a new generation of male and female collectors—as well as couples—uses their art collection to gain political and economic power. While collectors were previously hardly known to a broader public, today some of them actively stage their activities in the media and seek to attain the status of a celebrity. The massive accumulation of private money as a result of financial speculation is accompanied by budget cuts in the cultural sector. For many museums, cooperative projects with private collections often appear to be the only possibility to present contemporary art that they can no longer afford. Yet for many collectors today, the model of permanently tying their acquisitions to a public institution in the form of loans, gifts, or endowments seems to have lost its relevance. Instead, they prefer to self-confidently found their own, often architecturally striking exhibition venues. With issue No. 83 “Texte zur Kunst” critically reflects on the altered role of the collector in the way it relates to society. Plus reviews from Berlin, New York, Tel Aviv, Rio de Janeiro, Vienna, Paris, Munich, Brussels, Karlsruhe, Mönchengladbach and Lüneburg. Exclusive new artists’ editions: Tauba Auerbach, Monica Bonvicini and Sergej Jensen ENGLISH CONTENT PREFACE NIKLAS MAAK BETWEEN PINAULT AND PINCHUK. THE NETWORK AND RITUALS OF A NEW TRANSNATIONAL SYSTEM OF COLLECTORS ULF WUGGENIG ATTACHED BY AN UMBILICAL CORD OF GOLD IN FAVOUR OF TRANSPARENCY A ROUNDTABLE CONVERSATION ON COLLECTORS AND COLLECTIONS WITH CANDICE BREITZ, PEGGY BUTH, JONATHAN MONK, ANDREAS SIEKMANN; 
MODERATED BY SVEN BECKSTETTE STEFFEN ZILLIG THE IMAGE OF THE COLLECTOR – FROM CITOYEN TO CELEBRITY ANDREA FRASER L’1%, C’EST MOI THAT’S A GIVEN! A SURVEY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC MUSEUMS AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS WITH CHRIS DERCON, UDO KITTELMANN, KAROLA KRAUS, CHRISTINE MACEL, BARTOMEU MARÍ, MATTHIAS MÜHLING, BENNETT SIMPSON PICTURE SPREAD Øystein Aasan REVIEWS TAL STERNGAST THERE WAS A SECRET BEFORE THERE WAS SOMETHING TO HIDE On Moshe Ninio, Haim Steinbach and Christopher Williams at Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv LUKE COHEN GROUNDBREAKING! On John Knight at Greene Naftali, New York SVEN LÜTTICKEN RAIDING THE LIBRARY On Richard Prince at Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris NICOLÁS GUAGNINI !QUE BÁRBARA! On Emily Sundblad at Algus Greenspon, New York ARTISTS’ EDITIONS TAUBA AUERBACH “Static 18″ & “Static 19″, 2011 MONICA BONVICINI “19 Tonnes For You”, 2011 SERGEJ JENSEN “Untitled”, 2011 For additional information, orders or subscriptions please contact TEXTE ZUR KUNST STRAUSBERGER PLATZ 19 10243 BERLIN Germany TEL +49 (0)30 – 30 10 453 45 FAX +49 (0)30 – 30 10 453 44 editionen@textezurkunst.de www.textezurkunst.de