Collecting
The collection in 2006 numbered nearly 600 pieces produced by over 230 artists (mostly male, over 75%). Paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos, installations… so many different resources, it would seem, with which to work within the vast field of current creative art.
While Frac Lorraine each year collects works by artists of national and international standing, this is done however as part of its ongoing reflection on what it means to collect art in the first place.
So it would be somewhat misleading to present this collection without indicating that for the last few years, Frac Lorraine has been trying to ponder the limits to any collection, in phase with the resources currently available for creative art. Can we ignore the fact that part of art since the sixties has had its roots in performance, or that its closeness to the cinema is becoming more and more obvious.
Adopting these precepts naturally led the Frac to collect propositions for works rather than tangible realizations of them. Most often immaterial (performances, artists’ protocols for reactivation), the collection has also been opened up to other disciplines (dance, cinema).
How?
The collection is jointly funded by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, through the Lorraine regional arts council (DRAC), and by Lorraine Regional Council, giving Frac acquisitions the status of a public collection.
What are the criteria? How frequently?
Each Frac has devised its own specific collection project, in conjunction with its art programme.
Frac Lorraine’s acquisition policy is currently set by its director, Fanny Gonella, coordinating a purchasing committee of internationally recognized contemporary art professionals. The choices made by this committee are then validated by the Frac Lorraine management board. Five to eight works are purchased each year in this way.
At present, the committee is composed of four members:
Marie Cozette, director of the Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain – Occitanie, Sète
Anna Gritz, curator at the Kunst-Werke, Berlin
Hannes Loichinger, researcher and freelance writer, Hamburg
Fanny Gonella, director of the 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine
What is this regional thing?
The name ‘Fonds régional’ defines not where the works come from but the collection’s being allocated to a given area of France. The works are intended for dissemination throughout the départements of Lorraine region, and also in our cross-border areas, which over the last few years have built up a strong network of partners.
As you browse these pages exploring the entire collection, you can do so by following various themes indicative of Frac Lorraine’s committed lines of inquiry and of the diversity of approaches in contemporary art.
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