PHOTOGRAPHY: INTERNATIONAL

From 2000 to 2015, exemplary works and work groups contributing in the fields of video art and photography have been acquired for the Daimler Art Collection. The collection could be completed in these fields and provide a basis for the discussion of current developments in art. Represented are artists from Australia, Asia, South Africa, South America, India, Israel, China, Europe and the United States. We understand it as a duty to enlarge our collection because only a lively collection, which integrates and communicates the latest developments in art, is perceived as an active moment in the promotion of culture. The purchase of young art—in particular from South Africa, India, South America and China—contributes to a conscientious policy of support and is part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility. The integration of young art brings current trends in aesthetics, design, lifestyle, and the formation of values into the company as topics for discussion.

Internationalization of the collection:

A selected number of photography and video works have been acquired for the collection since 2000. Here, three essential criteria have been followed: the works’ key features match the collection’s orientation towards abstract avantgardes from the early South German modern movements and Bauhaus to today; they complement existing groups of work in the collection; the artists represent, at a high level, countries in which the company is active. Within these selection criteria, three rough thematic fields can be identified: conceptual and minimal tendencies, cinematic aspects and techniques; transitions to performative elements; critical and political statements. Exemplary works and work groups by artists from Asia (Ayumi Minemura, Kazuo Katase, Takehito Koganezawa e.g.), South Africa (Bernie Searle, David Goldblatt, Guy Tillim, Jane Alexander, Robin Rhode e.g.), India (Anna Palakunnathu, Pamela Singh, Shilpa Gupta, Dayanita Singh e.g.) and the USA (Doug Aitken, Robert Mapplethorpe, Garret Suhrie), from South America (Alfredo Jaar, Marcellvs L., Santiago Sierra, Esteban Pastorino e.g.) as well as Europe (Tacita Dean, Cor Dera, Philippe Parreno and others) joined the collection from 2000 to 2010. In 2012 a group of contemporary Israeli artists appeared; these include Ilit Azoulay, Sigalit Landau, Sharif Waked and Amit Berlowitz, contributing to the collection in the fields of video art and photography. In 2014/15, individual artworks and groups of works by contemporary Chinese artists were acquired for the Daimler Art Collection. These will be shown all together first at the Daimler Contemporary Berlin, and, later, starting November 2015, at the Daimler site Stuttgart-Möhringen.