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Kristina Ehle and Sascha Lazimbat
Kristina Ehle and Sascha Lazimbat are young collectors from Berlin. Active participation in art activities is just as important to them as direct contact with artists. For them, the artists' talks organized by the Deutsche Guggenheim Club are one of the highlights of the program.
You are two of the most prominent young collectors in Berlin. How did you develop a passion for contemporary art?
Sascha Lazimbat: It was a gradual process. We’ve been collecting since 2001 or 2002. We always went to museums regularly, but at first we didn’t follow the gallery scene very closely. In the last ten years, there has been an enormous amount of development in this area in Berlin, and we became more and more interested in what went on in artists’ spaces and commercial galleries. We were drawn to this vital scene very quickly; we plunged into it head over heals, and it reached the point where we traveled to trade fairs and other important events around the world that we thought we really had to attend to see artworks.
Kristina Ehle: The step from museums to galleries was also influenced by experienced and older collectors we met. At a certain juncture you reach the point where you say: I don’t want to just look at work of art outside. I want to have it for myself, in my home, where I can view it every day.
SL: At first there was no master plan or red thread for our collecting activities, but simply works that fascinated us. We intuitively bought what captivated us and what was financially feasible.
KE: (Laughs) In the meantime, we’ve become increasingly indebted to art…
What was the first work you bought?
KE: It was a painting by Peter Rösel.
SL: Yes. This relatively minimal painting is hanging here in our bedroom. It depicts a desert landscape with a fata morgana. Peter Rösel actually traveled through desert landscapes in Namibia looking for places where there were mirages and fata morganas. He tried to capture this on canvas. The exact GPS code of the place in the desert is marked on the frame. So you could travel to the exact spot, but you wouldn’t see what’s in the picture because it was only an apparition.
Your collection includes painting and sculpture as well as photography and video. Are there common denominators between the works you collect?
KE: Art has to have a conceptual level which at the same time leads to an aesthetic solution. Art has to do with our lives and our work, with our cultural background and with the things we’re interested in.
SL: I work for Warner Music where I’m in charge of business and corporate development. My work focuses on new activities that are becoming more and more important for former record companies due to the transformation of the market: staging of live concerts, merchandising, Internet offers, the commercialization of artists’ Web sites.
KE: I’m a free-lance attorney and consultant for copyrights and contracts, but I primarily deal with and give advice on business issues rather than legal matters. My clientele are artists, small galleries, and art projects. So we’re both lawyers at the interface between media, entertainment, content and technology of new media. This also plays a big role in our passion for young art and collecting activities. What’s important is an exchange of content, inspiration and ideas. It’s very important to us to become acquainted with works and the artists behind them. This goes especially well when you collect young art. So far we’ve been extremely lucky, because the artists from whom we’ve bought works were always very nice and friendly people, people with whom we also like to do things privately.
SL: Of course this personal level is not essential. We’re fundamentally interested in encounters with artists. And that’s why I find the artists’ talks the most exciting and important part of the Deutsche Guggenheim Club.
KE: For example, we got the opportunity to meet Gerhard Richter through the club. We really liked Tom Sachs, and of course Jeff Wall. Those are encounters that were very important to me and were incredibly enjoyable.
SL: We were thrilled to be able to go to previews, including Cai Guo-Qiang’s fireworks display, when he blew up an entire house for his exhibition Head On.
KE: I find it remarkable that this year the club started making art accessible to deprived children. We have provided financial support and taken part in events. Many of the children had never been downtown, let alone in a museum. I think it’s excellent that Deutsche Bank is getting involved in this area. In the long run, the club should support more such projects.
Apart from art you both love good food. If a sorcerer gave you the choice of either eating good food for the rest of your life or viewing good art, what would you opt for?
KE: Good food!
SL: I’d ask the sorcerer to transform artworks into edible art.
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