Collecting beyond Boundaries: digital media in contemporary art a conversation with Joost Vanhaerents

JV – My father started collecting art in the late 1970s. At the time, my sister and I were only ten years old. He started by collecting art locally in Belgium—Flemish artists from the Flanders region. It wasn’t until the early 1980s, when we visited some newly built museums in Germany—in places like Stuttgart, Mönchengladbach, Krefeld, and Cologne—that things really changed. These museums, designed by contemporary architects, were incredible. Visiting them was like stepping into a new world because, until then, we had only been collecting Flemish artists. Suddenly, we were exposed to the international scene with artists like Andy Warhol. The museums were newly built, and it was Warhol’s work that particularly caught my father’s attention because he was very interested in cinema and film. From there, he started focusing on Warhol and artists from the post-Warhol era like Richard Prince, Jenny Holzer, and Barbara Kruger. My father quickly realized he had been collecting the “wrong” things and decided to sell his entire collection of local artists to focus on international ones.

JV – Simply because he didn’t know much about art at that point. I often compare it to football—if you grow up in a small town, you’re familiar with the local team because your friends play, but it’s a small league. Then one day, you see a team like Inter or Milan playing against Real Madrid—it’s still football, but it’s on a completely different level. It’s the same with art.

JV – Yes, we visited the German museums together, and that’s when my father realized he had been collecting at a “lower league” level and suddenly had the opportunity to collect on a “Champions League” level. That was the start of our international collection, which began as a hobby, grew into a passion, and now has become something much larger. Today, we are among the top 200 collectors in the world, but we never did it for recognition—everything we bought was because we loved it and followed our hearts.

JV – No, we’re not commercially driven. We have a space in Brussels that’s about 3,500 square meters, where we exhibit our collection. Our exhibitions last for three years because Brussels doesn’t have as much art traffic as cities like Paris, London, or Berlin, so it takes time for people to discover the venue. That’s also why we go abroad—we’ve been to Venice three times now. The first time was in 2015, in the Zuecca art space on Giudecca, near the Bauer Palladio Hotel, where we showed 16 works from our collection, including pieces by artists like Bruce Nauman and Ugo Rondinone. The second time was also in 2015, when we showcased “The Death of James Lee Byars” at the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione as part of the Venice Biennale. We had around 130,000 visitors during that Biennale, and it was a massive success. Now we’re here for the third time, this time with a digital artwork by Memo Akten.

JV – We’re always open to new art forms. We’ve collected photography and video art in the past, even though most people think of painting when they think of art. When we became aware of the potential of digital art and artificial intelligence, we wanted to explore it. Public museums often feature interactive installations, which people are fascinated by. So, we decided to bring something new to the Venice Biennale because it can be quite traditional. We wanted to present something fresh, and that’s when Memo Akten’s name came up. He’s more of a reserved artist compared to someone like Refik Anadol, who is more of a global star, but Memo has been working in this field for a long time. He’s a computational engineer as well as an artist.

JV – We worked with Dominique Moulon, a French curator and author of a book on digital art. He introduced us to Memo, and we also visited the NXT museum in Amsterdam, Holland, which is entirely dedicated to digital art. Through these connections, we met Memo, and he had a great idea for a new piece, inspired by the richness of Venice’s history and culture. We commissioned him to create something specifically for Venice, and that’s how this project came to life.

JV – Yes, and we were very pleased with the result. Memo’s work really moves people: some visitors stay in front of the video for quite a long time. Even though the video is only eight minutes long, it touches them deeply; some even cry. It’s not just a simple slideshow—the images constantly morph and evolve, and it captures the essence of connection and balance between humans, nature, and technology. Despite being created with AI, there’s something very human about it, partly because Memo’s partner, Katie Hofstetter, choreographed a dance performance that’s part of the video. The movement in the images is striking—you sometimes see someone kneeling, standing up, opening their arms, or turning around, and that turn moves the image of the film. There’s something very human in the work that resonates with people, making it clear that it’s not just a machine at work. You also see textiles transforming into flowers, flowers morphing into corals, smoke, and gemstones—it’s an ongoing, never-ending transformation of one image into another. And because it lasts only eight minutes, it’s not hard to stay engaged.

JV – Yes, I understand what you mean.

JV – Exactly.

JV – I believe the artist has control over the machine, as he selects the images he wants to show. If the machine produces something ugly or unappealing, the artist can choose to exclude that from the work. I’m not sure how the algorithms work, but the artist is definitely creating something meaningful. He aims to create something that touches people, moves them to tears, or allows them to forget their worries for even just a couple of minutes. If an artwork can bring someone joy, even temporarily, then it’s a success.
I also think about artists like Bruce Nauman. I’ve been a fan of his work since I was ten. If you look at the contrapposto videos he presented at the Venice Biennale two years ago, these are films from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. He’s now using new technology to enhance the way his feet and body move, making it even more impactful to watch the new series of his work shown at Punta Della Dogana. All of this was computer-generated. Without computers, it wouldn’t exist, but it’s all created by humans. There’s always input from humans; without that, there’s no output from a machine. For instance, Bill Viola is mostly known for his film work. He filmed the scenes himself but also employed various techniques to enhance his films. Each artist has their own themes.

JV – Yes, along with my sister.

JV – We work together. However, selecting works can be challenging due to our differing tastes. In that case, we also have our own collections. We have the Vanhaerents Art Collection and our private collections. I’m personally a big collector of Tomas Saraceno, the Argentinian artist living in Berlin, and Ivan Navarro, the Chilean-American artist. Eventually, time will reveal who will become famous and who will endure. When we exhibited in Lille at Tripostal, there were many works by Tomas Saraceno, alongside Navarro’s. By bringing works together, we gain a broader perspective when looking at art. Collecting together allows us to capture a wider range of works and to explore a larger spectrum within the collection. Disagreements about artists can sometimes be beneficial.

JV – Yes.

JV – Yes, absolutely.

JV – We plan every four years and skip one in between, and then we brainstorm ideas. It’s uncertain if we’ll participate again in 2028, but if a nice idea arises, we might.

JV – No, we haven’t. The special currency needed for purchasing them, like Bitcoin, is also very unstable. Bitcoin has had a negative impact on the art market because many people don’t trust it. We’ve never collected NFTs, and I don’t think many traditional artists have embraced them either. For example, Takashi Murakami started making NFTs, but I don’t believe a traditional artist can suddenly create NFTs without it feeling strange. NFTs should ideally come from artists who express themselves in a digital medium, rather than being seen as a quick way to make money. Takashi Murakami’s approach—offering paintings or photographs alongside NFTs—feels very commercial.

The art world has started cooling down, especially after a few years when many people who weren’t typically in the art market rushed to buy artworks because they believed it was a good investment. When banking and real estate markets were struggling, people thought they could make money in the art world, but now many are reselling because they made poor choices.

Previously, it was difficult for us to buy art due to waiting lists, with people queuing to purchase pieces. Now, we focus on buying art that we genuinely like. My father always said that after visiting an exhibition, he would challenge us to identify the two best works on display because there are always stand-out masterpieces. We look with our eyes and purchase with our hearts. However, if we attend an exhibition and find that even a well-known artist has produced a poor series, we won’t buy those works. Only a trained collector can make those distinctions, based on decades of experience looking at art and attending exhibitions. For example, when viewing a Richter painting in Hamburg, I can determine whether it’s a good piece because I’ve seen many of his works and have a mental catalogue of them.

MS – When a collector looks at art, he can sometimes predict an artist’s future success. I’ve experienced this, as I’ve been attending art fairs for the last 20 years. I remember noticing certain artists 20 years ago—some emerging artists that I felt had talent—and then, seeing those same artists five or six years later in prestigious museums, and ten years later, they were established names.

JV – That’s true. I always say that life is full of opportunities and chances. And passion is the motor of every successful story. If you appreciate something and believe in it, then go for it. If you’re passionate about something and want to dedicate your life to it, then do it, because life is short.