Texts by: Ivana Bago, Milena Bartlová, Boris Buden, Karel Císař, Cosmin Costinaş, Ekaterina Degot, Branislav Dimitrijević, Marta Dziewanska, Charles Esche, Christine Frisinghelli, Boris Groys, Daniel Grúň, Tom Holert, Christian Höller, Nataša Ilić, Maud Jacquin, Leonida Kovač, Izabela Kowalczyk, Anders Kreuger, Roman Kurzmeyer, Kim Levin, Tevž Logar, Antonia Majaca, Boris Marte, Ewa Majewska, Susanne Neuburger, Peter Osborne, François Piron, Anka Ptaszkowska, Oleksiy Radynski, Vivian Sky Rehberg, Kathrin Rhomberg, Piotr Rypson, Dietmar Schwärzler, Walter Seidl, Alina Șerban, Slobodan Šijan, Dejan Sretenović, Raimar Stange, Miško Šuvaković, Andreas Treichl, Hedvig Turai, Jelena Vesić, Tomáš Vlček.
Kontakt is the first publication to provide an overview of the eponymous art collection that was founded in 2004 by Erste Group and ERSTE Foundation. This collection, which now consists of over 600 individual works with an emphasis on Eastern, Southeastern, and Central Europe, is portrayed via an array of diverse, mutually complementary approaches. A general introduction discusses the criteria and contextual guideposts of Kontakt’s collecting policy. In the monographic section that follows, renowned art researchers and theoreticians deal with a selection of 38 individual works from the collection. The book concludes with a group discussion of the changing art world’s various geopolitical dimensions and outlooks. Additionally, a rich body of illustrations features a cross-section of the collection’s holdings that is both representative and of great visual appeal.
