TLmag 41- The Art of Collecting / Collecting Art

Guest Editor : Simon de Pury

On the cover :

Urs Fischer
Le Parc Jurassique, 2025
Aluminum panel, aluminum honeycomb, polyurethane adhesive, epoxy primer, gesso, solvent-based screen printing paint, water-based screen printing paint
55 x 44 x 7/8 in.
139.7 x 111.8 x 2.2 cm
Framed: 60 3/4 x 49 3/4 x 2 1/16 in.
154.3 x 126.4 x 5.2 cm

© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian. Photographer: Stefan Altenburger

Editorials 

I Collect Therefore I Am

I am immensely grateful to Lise Coirier, owner and chief editor of TL Mag for having offered me the unique chance to be guest editor of this current issue. She has given me complete ‘carte blanche’ under condition that the main focus be on collecting.

Collecting is an incurable disease. There are as many different motivations for collecting as there are collectors. Most children collect marbles, toys, miniature cars or dolls. As teenagers this urge to collect or accumulate recedes somewhat. It is as adults, that when for the first time we make a financial sacrifice to acquire a work of art that we covet, that we make the seminal first step. The next steps follow automatically. The act of acquiring becomes a sign of vitality in itself and is like a challenge to our own mortality. I have often seen collectors making some of their boldest purchases when they were either very old or affected by serious illness. At the highest level collecting is an artistic pursuit in it’s own right. A good collection always carries the handwriting of the person who has put it together. It is therefore not surprising that very often artists themselves are the best collectors. The bug of collecting can affect anyone independently of their financial possibilities. I have come across collectors who have built remarkable collections with limited means and equally  affluent ones who have not managed to do so.

In this issue I have asked a number of friends, colleagues or acquaintances that I admire and who are active in a wide variety of fields to contribute in one way or another to this issue. It is a pure vanity project since nobody got paid for their efforts. I am infinitely grateful to them. I have listed all contributors in alphabetical order below

Staffan Ahrenberg

Ron Arad

Tiqui Atencio Demirdjan

Takaya Awata

Francesco Bonami

Fernando Botero Quintana

Maurizio Cattelan

Rosey Chan

Michael Chow

Wim Delvoye

Kami Gahiga

Louisa Guinness

Jean François Jaussaud

Kanika Kapoor

Christian Levett

Daniella Luxembourg

Marianne Mathieu

Fabrizio Moretti

Hans Ulrich Obrist

Clio Peppiatt

Michael Peppiatt

Diana Picasso

Jean Pigozzi

Joachim Pissarro

Marc Quinn

Laurent Reiss

Nick Rhodes

Don Rubell

Mera Rubell

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Mario Testino

Edmund de Waal

The main engines in my own life are passion and curiosity. This issue allows me to share insights into many fields that fascinate me such as art, photography, architecture, music, cinema, design, fashion, food and sport. I do hope that the readers of this issue will derive at least a fraction of the pleasure I have had in putting it together.

An undertaking like this could never have taken place without invaluable painstaking and tireless work. I would like to express here my deepest and warmest thanks to Blaire Dessent and Rukiah Zakaria who have attended to any imaginable issue and to Antoine Jovenet the brilliant graphic designer.

Simon de Pury, January 2025

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The Art of Collecting, Self-Portrait and the Primacy of Instinct

Simon de Pury is the Guest Editor of this new annual edition of  TLmag, in which he appears, gavel in hand, as depicted by Urs Fischer on the cover. Entitled Jurassic Park, this work introduces a critical distance tinged with irony: Simon appears as an emblematic figure of the art market. The auctioneer embodies the decisive moment when the work shifts from desire to value, from gaze to transaction. The gavel, a symbol of authority and verdict, crystallizes the power to set a price, to consecrate a work, and to inscribe it, through an artistic gesture, into a global economy.

Parc Jurassique also evokes a prehistoric, almost fossilized world, where immutable rituals, protocols, and established hierarchies remain. The art market appears as a spectacular ecosystem, sometimes frozen in its codes, where mythical figures survive while coexisting with contemporary creation. This cover subtly questions the concept and reality of collecting, as well as the constant tension between innovation and artistic traditions. It invites the reader to glimpse the art world as a living landscape, traversed by forces, narratives, and paradoxes. Following in the footsteps of Bas Smets, Marco Sammicheli, Lidewij Edelkoort, and Chris Dercon, the content of this iconic edition of the magazine has been designed as a “carte blanche,” focusing on the personal and subjective choices of its author.

To mark the 10th anniversary of Spazio Nobile Gallery, dedicated to contemporary applied arts and fine arts, and the 18th anniversary of TLmag, which has now come of age, we wanted to delve into the depths and mysteries of a keen eye, such as that of Simon de Pury. The gems and passions, often kept secret like hidden addictions, are revealed before our eyes as we read these articles, which unfold like a diary set to music by our special guest. A state of grace can be read between the lines: a tribute to strong and sincere friendships, a deliberate eclecticism that reflects his generous personality. A collector of images and encounters, he makes no secret of it: his innate curiosity and energy are matched only by his global travels. His soul as a globetrotting gentleman is in tune with our vision of art and culture. Simon de Pury echoes the thinking of Saint-Simon: a resolutely positive faith in movement, the circulation of ideas, and the ability of art to shape the future rather than remain frozen in the past.

Lise Coirier, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief TLmag