Collecting in connection

The question of collecting is increasingly becoming the focus of attention once again—in contemporary art museums too. Their realignment as venues where it is possible to reflect on contemporary and future societal challenges also provides alternative opportunities for the practice of collecting as the central aspect of museum work. It seems that “connecting” is rapidly replacing “arranging” as the structuring paradigm of collections. Despite the long-established focus on individual items, the trend today is more and more towards thinking about collections in terms of references and relations. Doing so raises a number of questions. What connections and contexts should also be included in collections? How can historical methods of reception, political contexts, or discursive linkages be made accessible, visible, and capable of still being experienced? How should changing art practices be handled, such as performative, ephemeral, participatory, or collaborative approaches which cannot be collected simply as “objects” but require different approaches to discursivation and actualisation? How are digital and analog museum collections related to other types of knowledge producing storage options such as archives and libraries, and where can synergies between them be found? And to what extent must we rethink our responsible handling of collections in times of overflowing inventories and efforts to conserve resources? “Collecting in connection” therefore seems capable of linking up to different trends, including the one towards a new culture of social participation in collections. We will discuss the notions of opening up and connecting as key factors in a different attitude towards collections and share ideas on innovative approaches to the collecting of contemporary art.