Discovering Collections!

On Saturday evening of the festival week, ›Discovering Collections!‹ opens private collections to the public. For the first time, selected collectors will offer the Berlin Art Week audience insights into the diversity of their collection initiatives, each with a different focus such as contemporary international art, photography, or thematic concepts. The event will illuminate the unique connections between the artworks, the artists, and the collectors, making these relationships easier to understand. Collections chosen by: Collection Night.

Registration for the collection visits is now closed 

Charlottenburg: Anahita Sadighi Collection

Anahita Sadighi, daughter of the art collector Hamid Sadighi Neiriz, grew up in an environment where collecting art was a natural part of life. Her collection includes objects from various cultures and eras, the value of which lies less in their material or historical significance than in the stories they embody. She values unconventional perspectives informed by creativity, spirituality, and cultural identity. Through her collection, Sadighi seeks to challenge Eurocentric and patriarchal views and promote new, diverse perspectives: »The collection aims to promote intercultural and intergenerational dialogue.« She emphasises the transformative power of women’s perspectives: »In many ancient cultures, it was women who had access to creativity and the mystical world. Through their art, they opened these realms to everyone. This narrative of strong femininity has been overwritten.« Her aim is to restore lost connections to the feminine, nature, spirituality, and the mystical world. Sadighi’s approach as a collector is simple: »Trust your intuition, cultivate individuality, and allow yourself to be inspired by diversity.« The collector aims to highlight under-represented topics and stimulate contemporary discourse through art.
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Schöneberg: Danwerth Collection 

As Christopher Danwerth shows, not every art collection begins with works of art. His journey into art collecting began with an accumulation of photography books and catalogues. Although his book collection continues to grow, his focus is now photography, particularly from the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement and the Dusseldorf School of Photography led by Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The first work he acquired was an edition by Thomas Ruff (›Cassini 13‹, 2009), followed shortly by a typology of six water towers by Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1976. Danwerth is particularly inspired by the work of the Dia Art Foundation in Beacon, New York, which he sees as exemplary in its commitment to realising complex works in the interest of artists. His advice to aspiring collectors: »Follow your eyes and your heart.«  
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Lankwitz: Ernst Trautmann Collection 

The collection of Clemens Trautmann and Patricia Ernst was founded on their shared passion for classical music. Trautmann, a trained clarinettist and president of the German classical music label Deutsche Grammophon, and Ernst, a lawyer specialising in copyright and corporate law, have spent many years building a thematically focused collection of historical and contemporary works from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Their collection explores the visual and conceptual dimensions of sound, tone, graphic notation, and musical forms of expression. The couple collect across a range of media, including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, and film. Their collection places works by Carl Spitzweg and Oskar Kokoschka in dialogue with those by contemporary artists such as Nevin Aladağ, Thorsten Brinkmann, Annika Kahrs, Katja Aufleger, Rona Kobel, Jorinde Voigt, Olaf Nicolai, Gregor Hildebrandt, Philipp Fürhofer, and Ari Benjamin Meyers. 
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Prenzlauer Berg: Hackelsberger Collection 

Alexandra Hackelsberger’s collection originally focused on conceptual works on paper and lithographs by artists such as Antoni Tàpies and Eduardo Chillida. Over the years, her interest gradually shifted towards conceptual photography, beginning with experimental photography from the 1970s. Her collection, which includes works by Viktoria Binschok, Barbara Probst, Jan Groover, and Fiete Stolte, is exemplary in exploring the boundaries between photography and other artistic media. As a member of the ›Art’Us Collectors Collective‹, she is committed to making contemporary art accessible through private loans, an aspect she considers essential. 
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Charlottenburg: Neiriz Collection 

Hamid Sadighi Neiriz, who moved from Tehran to Germany in the 1960s at the age of 17 to study at the University of the Arts, has been building his collection for 50 years. He acquired his first work of art on the Rue des Beaux Arts in Paris during a university trip in 1973. Neiriz’s Berlin apartment now houses more than 1,000 historical objects alongside modern and contemporary art. He explains: »It would be an exaggeration to say that I also collect modern or contemporary art. But my apartment is still full of it! I can’t let a good painting or print pass me by.« Neiriz sees himself as an »old-fashioned collector« who buys art for its own sake, as opposed to many who only buy »names« or objects with prominent provenance. »In the past, people bought art for art’s sake. Today, many buyers and collectors, including museums, follow trends. But it’s refreshing to swim against the tide once in a while.« As for the future, Neiriz hopes that his collection will find a home in museums and remain accessible to the public. He also hopes that future buyers will appreciate the artistic value and intrinsic magic of the works, rather than seeing them merely as financial investments.

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Mitte: Patrick Gehlen Collection

Patrick Gehlen’s collecting began while he was still at school, when he bought a photographic piece by Isa Genzken. He had saved money from a job with his father to purchase this first work. The Frankfurt art scene provided the initial inspiration for a deeper engagement with art, with its institutions such as the MMK, Städel Museum, Portikus, and Frankfurter Kunstverein along with influential figures including Udo Kittelmann, Susanne Gaensheimer, Max Hollein, and Kasper König. Gehlen’s collection focuses on contemporary conceptual work, ranging from young graduates of the Städelschule to established figures in art history. He himself describes his collection as eclectic. One of its cornerstones is Thomas Bayrle’s ›Tassentasse‹ (1969), an iconic work of German Pop Art, which he considers central to the continuation of his collection. Gehlen sees great potential in the »pact« between artists, gallerists, and collectors to develop significant bodies of work, noting: »It’s a thread that needs to be taken up again.«