January 2009

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‘Philosophy of the Overlooked: Collecting’ kicked off the summer talks at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. The panel was made up of John Sellars, academic and book collector, art collector Anita Zabludowicz, and Mike Presdee, senior lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent. A short film by Martin Hampton called ‘Possessed’ about four obsessive hoarders was screened first, presumably intended to prompt comparisons between their mental (ill) health and the sanity of serious art collectors. I’m not sure it convinced (Hampton’s moving film is nevertheless worth seeing as a piece on its own) but the speakers entertainingly relished their theme of collectors-as-unhinged. Sellars declared collecting ‘a pathology’ and himself as ‘a sick man’ in his pursuit of antique books. Presdee called collecting ‘a transgression’ citing the case of a man ordered to reduce his collection of 49 East German Trabant cars by Derby city council. Zabludowicz is clearly passionate about her art collection; she ‘falls in love’ with works, they are her ‘babies’, about which she feels ‘possessive’ and ‘proud’. Certainly Sellars and Zabludowicz had no problem sending themselves up, poking fun at their habits – much to the amusement of the audience. Future ICA talks, entitled ‘The Dark Side of Globalisation’ and ‘How Philosophers Die’, might be hard-pressed to provide mirth, but they will doubtless be engaging.

For further information on talks at the Institute go to www.ica.org.uk

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