collecting – 10.01.2023
WHY DO YOU COLLECT ART, KERSTIN GEFFERT?
ART AS PLEASURE
Although I undoubtedly buy art from time to time and have done so for quite a while, I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a collector. Collectors, to me, are people who approach the whole thing strategically, who search specifically and possibly also pursue commercial interests. I don't want to expose myself to that kind of stress; fashion is more my professional hunting ground (#wearstin). For me, looking at art, at its best, even within our own four walls, is purely for pleasure. Often, it is the artists I meet by chance who make me curious and then awaken my interest in their work. That's how it was mostly in the 1990s, when no party went on without cheap art selling in the next room. People knew each other; they had a beer together, and sometimes they took a painting home. Funny and Fucky, the two cute art figures by Evelin Höhne, have been with me ever since they were tiny little paintings and remind me of a good time. Since then, some works have been added: Paintings, photographs, sculptures, and illustrations leapt out at me from the page; others I recognized as reproductions or from Instagram and was excited to see in person. My own taste in art never ceases to surprise me. I have no idea what I like until I see it. But then I knew immediately.
Kerstin Geffert moved from Minden/Westphalia to Berlin in the early nineties. From 1995 to 2005 she ran the creative agency Artgenossen with two partners. On the side she did PR (without knowing it) for the Sicomat e.V. gallery run by friends (read about it in METROLOOPS by Claudia Wahjudi, 1999). In 2005 Kerstin Geffert co-founded Silk Relations, one of today's most relevant communications agencies for international fashion and lifestyle brands in Berlin. She lives with her husband, son and dog Bobby in a loft that unfortunately has far too few walls.