Isabel Parkes

So Let The Artists Do It. Conversations with ten artists from the Sammlung Hoffmann
Sammlung Hoffmann

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The Sammlung Hoffmann stretches across multiple floors of a yellow brick building in the heart of Berlin. Formerly a factory which manufactured sewing machines, the space has housed one of Germany’s most acclaimed private art collections since 1997. Starting in the sixties, Erika Hoffmann-Koenige and her late husband Rolf Hoffmann collected works by artists whose ideas they considered both engaging and utterly contemporary, and with whom they formed lasting relationships. Many of these artists have gone on to shape contemporary art and art history with their bold ideas and visions. 

Writer and curator Isabel Parkes (b. London, 1989; lives and works in Berlin) spoke with Erika Hoffmann- Koenige and ten artists central to her and her husband’s collection to produce a printed archive of voices and formats that illuminates some of the ever-changing conditions in which contemporary art is created and experienced. 

The book of interviews and essays takes longstanding relationships between artists and their patron as a starting point from which to explore how private and public, art and life interweave and manifest themselves in one of Germany’s most singular collections of contemporary art. Each conversation offers two sides of the story: Erika Hoffmann-Koenige’s recollections of what stood out, then and now, followed by discussions with artists about their work and processes, as well as the perspectives and ideals that have both informed and been informed by these friendships. With Monica Bonvicini, Katharina Grosse, Roni Horn, Katarzyna Kozyra, Julie Mehretu, Ernesto Neto, Albert Oehlen, Pipilotti Rist, Frank Stella, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Erika Hoffmann-Koenige.