The Collector is Present celebrates its third edition

The Collector is Present returns for the third consecutive year to promote encounters between collectors, exhibitors and visitors. For four days, galleries and collectors come together to think, show and talk about art, but above all to make visible a relationship that usually remains behind the scenes.

This edition features 16 galleries spread across Barcelona, l'Hospitalet and Santa Margarida i els Monjos. Each gallery invites one or more collectors to work together on a proposal, which can take the form of an exhibition, a guided tour, a conversation or a more informal presentation. With a program open to everyone, The Collector is Present invites you to approach the world of collecting from different perspectives, and see how this world is shaped by personal views, intuitions and very specific stories.

From May 8 to 11, each space will display its proposal. ADN Galeria , for example, celebrates two decades of complicity with Joaquín Díez Cascón with an exhibition that brings together works that have built a sustained relationship over time. There is also another exhibition that connects Marina Vargas ' pieces from Manuel Expósito 's collection with works by the same artist that have recently been exhibited at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. In Chiquita Room , Cristina Arribas shares part of her enormous collection of postcards with skies with Cielito lindo, in an exhibition that features the artist Iván Candeo as a guest.

Volando por la ruta de los Flagships, American Airlines. Chiquita Room

At Pigment Gallery , collectors such as Carmen and Lluís Bassat , Rudi Peters , Miquel Rull and Ferran Josa dialogue with photographer Patricio Reig through portraits and self-portraits. You can also hear how the project was conceived and what lies behind each image. Another proposal is that of the new SELTZ gallery, which presents a selection of pieces from the collection of Rafael Doctor Roncero and invites you to a conversation with José Luis Pérez Pont to talk about motivations and ways of collecting.

L'Hospitalet also participates in this new edition and at ethall , the collaboration with Caniche Editorial gives rise to a meeting around a work by Itziar Okariz and reflections on the role of each agent in the art world. And at Galeria Alegria , Guillermo de Barnola gives voice and context to the collection of his brother Antonio, a gallerist who died in 2014, in a conversation with Tommaso Nabiuzzi about the task of documenting a collection and the intimate look that only a brother can provide.

Retratarse, Patricio Reig. PigmentGallery

Also noteworthy is the participation of Miguel Ángel Sánchez , collector and director of ADN , who presents a selection of Fluxus works at the Prats Nogueras Blanchard gallery . At the Taché Art Gallery , Carles Taché and Julio Vaquero , director of the Sorigué Foundation collection, reflect on the two sides of collecting: the private and the institutional. And in FUGA , a work by Enric Ansesa from the Lluís Bassat collection enters into dialogue with an exhibition by the same artist that can be seen at the gallery.

At ProjecteSD , Iñaki Bonillas ' exhibition is complemented by a work of his from the collection of Álvaro López de Lamadrid and a new piece created for the occasion, designed to continue a dialogue that began in Mexico, for the Casa Luis Barragán.

In parallel with the exhibition that artist Anna Malagrida is presenting at the Tàpies Museum, the SENDA gallery will exhibit one of her photographs from the Vitrines (Shop Windows) series. The artist will speak with the collector Álvaro López de Lamadrid , a friend of the gallery since its beginnings and a great admirer of Malagrida's work.

Secretos. Men I love, Iñaki Bonillas. ProjecteSD

In addition to the exhibitions and meetings, the program includes guided tours and activities led by the collectors themselves, and can be consulted in full on the official website of the Barcelona Gallery Weekend. All these proposals not only give visibility to collectors, but also invite us to reflect on what collecting means today and what role this practice plays within the artistic ecosystem. The Collector is Present thus becomes a prelude to the next Barcelona Gallery Weekend —which will celebrate its eleventh edition from September 18 to 21 with the same participating galleries— and a way of reclaiming, once again, the gallery as a living space, of dialogue and direct relationship between art and people.

Digital vs Físic. House of Chappaz