13 May 2011

Francesca Von Habsburg

A portrait of Francesca von Habsburg A portrait of Francesca von Habsburg

During the past two months we’ve been keeping our eyes on the streets and looking into the urban art that Berlin has to offer. But what about the other side of the scale?

Francesca Von Habsburg is a leading figure in world art. She is founder of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art (TBA21), one of the leading foundations in this field.

And the importance of Berlin’s creative scene is not lost on her. We spoke to Francesca about her grand creative ideas, that include one of the most ambitious artworks at the moment, The Morning Line, and how the city of Berlin has influenced her life and opinion of art.

HUGO Create: Are you an arts collector?

Francesca von Habsburg: Not true to form. I would prefer to consider myself an art producer. I think I reacted against the history of collecting art in my family. We’ve been collecting for four generations, so it’s in my genes. 

HC: How did you develop your own artistic identity? And how Berlin helped to develop it?

FvH: 20 years ago I started working in conservation of art objects. Then I moved into contemporary art about 10 years ago and I started by acquiring huge art installations. And that was why I was so attracted to Berlin. It’s always been a city where innovation and creative impulse is right there in your face.

I’d say about 80% of the TBA21 collection comes from Berlin based artists, so I feel a very strong connection with the city. There are so many great art venues in the city, like the Hamburger Bahnhof where Udo Kittelmann, when he took over the directorship of the Berlin Stadtmuseum installed a new commission we made with Janet Cardiff. It was the only work installed in the whole museum at the time and it was awesome. I cultivated good relationships with the artists in Berlin and they remain a great pillar of the identity of TBA21.

HC: Can you describe some work you did with artists based in Berlin?

FvH: One should keep in mind that many of the artists based in Berlin come from all over the world and that is what makes Berlin such a Mecca for the art world. 6 years ago I commissioned a project with Olafur Eliasson, called Your Black Horizon. I put Olafur and David Adjaye, an African architect based in London together and invited them to conceive a project which integrated art, architecture and the surrounding landscape (a third dimension) into one oeuvre.

HC: Do you have an interest in current urban art?

FvH: Yes, we’ve worked closely with the Brooklyn band Japanther who are very associated with urban art. I’d love to get them to curate an urban art exhibition. That would be an example of cross-pollinating between different artistic disciplines. And we have been talking about inviting the urban artist Blu to recreate the piece he made for MOCA in LA. He did an enormous mural for the museum that was painted over before it was even inaugurated. I’d like to invite him to Vienna to create the piece again, on our new BOX which is the reconfigured Berlin Temporare Kunsthalle. We bought it for 1 euro and are bringing to Vienna in the fall. Vienna certainly does not need another museum, it needs a laboratory for experimentation, a place where artists, architects, designers, writers, musicians and curators can develop their ideas and projects together with the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary foundation.

HC: And can you tell us about your current project, The Morning Line?

FvH: Yes, it’s dedicated to interaction between art and architecture, like Your Black Horizon, but we took this project a step further and integrated electronic music too, with an insanely sophisticated sound system. It’s a public art space, beautiful and elegant, but at the same time it is a platform for contemporary composition that shifts people’s perceptions of sound space.

I really feel that in order to truly innovate you need to cross-pollinate different artistic disciplines. When you create crossovers between performance and art, art and design and science, sound architecture with traditional architecture, social political documentation, with knowledge production and publications, you can generate something truly original that can really make a mark on the art world.