Modern Curiosity Cabinet - Interview with Thomas Olbricht, art collector and founder of the me Collectors Room

Thomas Olbricht, surrounded by the works from his collection; 2012 © me Collectors Room Berlin, photo: Jana Ebert

The recently opened exhibition „Art & Toys – Collection Selim Varol“ marks the beginning of the third year of the private art space me Collectors Room in Berlin. Founder Thomas Olbricht shows the colourful toys and street art collection of Selim Varol, an entrepreneur from Düsseldorf. In our interview, Olbricht explains his own passion for art, his plans for the future of his art space, and what young collectors should keep in mind then buying art.

 

After the exhibition of Gerhard Richter's editions the current exhibition “Art & Toys – Collection Selim Varol” presents a big contrast. Was this done on purpose?

Yes, I always wanted to show different positions. This is why we show something completely different after the superficially very serious Gerhard Richter exhibition.

ART & TOYS Collection Selim Varol,iInstallation view, 2012, me Collectors Room Berlin, photo: Jana Ebert

You offer your museum as an exhibition space to other collectors. Is it hard for you to hold back and make room for other collectors' preferences?

The “me” in “me Collectors Room” stands for moving energies. We like to hold back and make space for others. Another personality from the collectors' world has to be able to use this space freely, without pressure or boundaries. The guest has to be able to say: ME! My collection. I can do what I want here, nothing is predetermined. It is not always easy, but it is our concept.

What do you find interesting about the collection Selim Varol?

I met Selim Varol exactly two years ago and he showed me his book "Toy Giants“ with photographies of his family, his toys, the figurines. He talked about his collection with great excitement, I knew immediately that I wanted to show his collection here in Berlin. I made the decision without thinking about it, it was a whole knew world that opened up to me. I'd really like to collect those figurines as well, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

It is a curiosity cabinet.

Yes, a modern curiosity cabinet, this is also the way we present these strange figurines in display cases. I just find it beautiful.

Selim's Family Groupshot, 2012, Daniel & Geo Fuchs

Did you find that you have things in common as a collector?

Selim Varol belongs to a younger generation, but the enthusiasm characterizes him all the same. This boundless enthusiasm to really be part of something, get into something, this is how I feel as well. You connect over that. It continues to give me new energy. It might be crazy to collect, but it makes your life richer, at least mine and that of Selim Varol.

You have been collecting for almost 30 years. How did it start?

I like to flatter myself a little bit, I always say that I have not been collecting for only 30 but for 60 years – namely stamps. I still do that today, but a lot more specialized. I collect the first stamps that were issued in a country. Later, via many detours, I started to collect art. My environment was certainly a big influence, my relatives collected art and I got hooked. Once you have caught that virus, there is no cure. I bought the latest object for my collection the day before yesterday. It is not an artwork, but a stuffed flamingo that has been standing in a glass cabinet for over hundred years. Before that I bought a Murano-glass chandelier and before that a painting by Robert Longo.

How do make decisions when buying art? Emotionally or rationally?

Buying art is a kind or craft. If you have a basic sense of aesthetics, it is a craft because you develop an eye for quality. You are quickly able to intuitively decide what is quality art and what is trash. It is exciting to observe how different artworks go together and what new parallels develop when a new piece comes into the collection. An interesting mix develops that a public house, that might have other commitments, cannot show. In this respect we are not really a museum but a kind of laboratory, we try and combine various things. This is the way I make decisions, of course I always have a guilty conscience afterwards. Always. I bought something again!

But this is the point of collecting!

Exactly, but you have to be careful not to be swallowed by it. Buying art costs money, it is not a stock. You cannot go to the stock market tomorrow and sell everything again. A certain dose of economical thinking is advisable. I think you should only buy art when you have some money to spare.

What is your advice to young collectors?

You have to like art to deal with it. When you start collecting, you have to be patient. You don't have to jump on every bandwagon, especially not when it has already left. You also have to have the courage to do something unconventional once in a while. You have to go your own way and not get talked into things by other people. It takes at least ten years until you can see a development, until you will know whether the artists you collected made it or got lost in the shuffle. It is impossible to predict anything.

What was the decisive impetus for your museum?

At some point I just did not see the sense in collecting art anymore, only to stow it away somewhere. I also received more inquiries about loans. Those always threw spotlights on my collection, but the whole picture was never visible. After nothing came out of several attempts to cooperate with the Folkwang Museum, it occurred to me that I could open my own museum. I wanted to bring the art to the people, and this works best in Berlin, our only international city. Klaus Biesenbach, the then director of Kunstwerke told me about an empty property next door and asked me whether I wanted to do something with it. This is how the project was born.

What were the first works you bought?

The first works I bought were regional artists from the Rhineland, among them Georg Meisterman. I don't own those anymore, however. I am a dynamic collector, hence moving energies. When you started your collection 25-30 years ago and still like the stuff you bought then, you are either a genius, or you just didn't develop, which would be bad. You would basically be dead.

ART & TOYS Collection Selim Varol,iInstallation view, 2012, me Collectors Room Berlin, photo: Jana Ebert

Did you already collect artworks by Gerhard Richter then?

I the beginning I collected German artists of German abstraction after 1945. Nay, Baumeister, Winter. I still own 2-3 main works from those artists. I exchanged everything else after 15 years and continued collecting. Gerhard Richter became part of my collection about 20 years ago. I started at a time when this was still financially possible, but not inexpensive any more. Now I own a complete edition. Two nice encounters and a small correspondence came out of our exhibition. Gerhard Richter appreciated that someone collected all those editions, he liked it.
Selim is something completely different, so are those designer toys … To see this new generation and the whole networking on the internet. To see, how 100 of those objects are sold with the click of a mouse. The way I am experiencing this now is incredible. It is similar to when I found a discoloured stamp here or a special edition print there. There are special editions and figurines in ten different colours. Selim and the other collectors know all their names! They know exactly what is there, it really is like collecting stamps, but on another level.

Which artwork is hanging above your desk? Do you change it around or is it always the same one?

I do change it. At the moment it is a work of Moritz Schleime's "Rocker's Island". You can see a masked rocker standing on a sailboat. He is planning to board an island with his grappling hook. His companion, who sits in the front of the boat, is just throwing up into the water. This happens to fit with the current exhibition. Next to it stands a piece by Erich Heckel, still wrapped. “Der Mann mit den betenden Händen”. This work has accompanied me since my youth, since I was about 14. It is one of the most eminent woodcuts of German expressionism. I just purchased a poster from the 1920s that depicts this man as well. I tried to limit myself but I do not always succeed. I suppose that just is my passion for collecting. Without passion there is no collecting.