Issue 2 - The Art Newspaper

PHOTO: MARION VOGEL
INTERVIEW
Chris Dercon
Director, Tate Modern
Chris Dercon, the director
of Tate Modern
since 2011, compares
his job with running a
public broadcasting
company. The day
before we met, he had held a brainstorming
session with the Tate’s curators
about its programme. “You start
with set ideas and you come up with
a completely different idea thanks to
serendipity,” he says. “Everything is
interconnected.” It all sounds democratic—Nick
Serota, Dercon’s boss,
came too—collegiate and unbureaucratic
for a big museum. “It’s not ‘The
Sopranos’ or ‘Mad Men’,” he says,
referring to TV series with a named
creative producer in charge. “It’s ‘The
Wire’ or ‘Homeland’, with each
episode directed by someone else.”
Dercon was born in Belgium and
studied art history, theatre and film
theory in Amsterdam. An arts journalist
before he became a curator, he was
the founding director of the Witte de
With contemporary art centre in
Rotterdam. He then became the director
of the city’s Museum Boijmans Van
Beuningen, overseeing its expansion
and renovation. Before Tate Modern,
THE ART NEWSPAPER FRIEZE ART FAIR Wednesday 10 October 2012 7
‘An old work will be
incredibly angry…’
…if you marry it with a contemporary work in a superficial way. By Javier Pes
he ran Munich’s Haus der Kunst. We
met a fortnight before Frieze, when
Dercon had just returned from the
opening of “The Ancients Stole All Our
Great Ideas”, Ed Ruscha’s exhibition at
the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna
(until 2 December), the first in the historic
art museum’s new series of contemporary
installations.
The Art Newspaper: Frieze London
has added Frieze Masters this
year. What do you think of the
trend to link historic and contemporary
art?
Chris Dercon: I hope people will be
aware that these things that were produced
a very long time ago have a
complex life in terms of reception and
transmission, and these complexities
are very important to deal with. It will
be very sad if people do it in a superficial
way. An old work will be incredibly
angry with you if you do that.
When you start getting into what
Ed Ruscha has done, it’s fantastic. I
think it’s important that we start to
question the contemporaneity of contemporary
art. Maybe we need to stop
talking about the newest new art, and
start talking about new techniques
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and definitely new audiences.
What was the attraction of working
in London?
There was the personal contact with
Nick Serota. I got to know him when I
was at the Witte. We were the first to
do retrospectives of artists such as
Hélio Oiticica and Paul Thek. And in
Munich, I was the first to do a retrospective
of Amrita Sher-Gil. Nick
Serota was more aware than most
“The only thing Nick
Serota and I disagree
about is that I did so
many fashion shows”
people of the importance of these
artists. I decided I have to go to places
I was envious of. I was envious of
what the Tate has been doing since
2003 with Latin American art, since
2008 with Middle Eastern art, more
recently with African art, and soon
with South Asian art.
Every move you make as Tate
Modern’s director is scrutinised.
How do you cope with that?
I got scrutinised at the Boijmans
© SOTHEBY’S, INC. 2012 TOBIAS MEYER, PRINCIPAL AUCTIONEER, #9588677 © 2012 ESTATE OF PABLO PICASSO / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK
The director has moved
around Europe “like a
soccer player”
because of the situation in the city of
Rotterdam—the city of Pim Fortuyn [a
critic of multiculturalism]—and in
Munich because I became the director
of the “private kunsthalle of Mr
Hitler”. It was about elitism and wanting
to become a multicultural society
in Rotterdam, and history and the
way you deal with history in Munich.
So to be scrutinised is normal.
I imagine Nick Serota is a tough
boss.
We have a long-standing dialogue
about the future of museums because
of what I did with architects and
what he did. We have a long-standing
discussion about the multicultural
society. He knew I was interested in
other media, and he knew the shows
I did. So the dialogue was not new.
The only thing we didn’t agree about
was that I did so many fashion shows
in Rotterdam and Munich. That’s still
a joke—a long-standing joke.
Were you concerned that most of
your time would be spent raising
the funds to build Tate Modern’s
extension?
I’ve been addicted to [fundraising]
since [working at] PS1. Alanna Heiss
[the founder] and I had to lay off
The hole at Cullinan Diamond Mine, Gauteng, South Africa, where in 1905
F. Wells unearthed what is known as the Cullinan Diamond, or the Star of Africa.
Photo credit: Petra Diamonds Ltd.
people during the summer because we
couldn’t pay them. Once the shows
were in place, it was much easier to
get people enthusiastic. That’s how I
worked in PS1; that’s how I work here.
Because I’ve been working almost like
a soccer player, going from Brussels to
New York to F.C. Rotterdam to Bayern
Munich, you get to meet so many
enthusiastic and generous people.
There’s always a fear that public
institutions will become a plutocrat’s
vanity project.
I like to concentrate on those collectors
who share our beliefs. There are
many who want to work with new
forms of public-private partnership:
the Falckenbergs, the Goetzs, Dimitris
Daskalopoulos, Bernardo Paz and
Anthony d’Offay, to name a few. There
are many examples of mega-rich private
collectors who see the benefits of
working with public museums.
And where do art fairs fit into
your schedule these days?
I can’t go to them all. It’s very important
to be in Basel, and in Miami,
given my Latin American connections.
I’m not hopping in and out of
airports. I did that. Now the curators
have to do it.