Art has its own value in each area or attribute that makes up its full meaning: it has cultural value, aesthetic value, historical value, personal value, emotional value and economic value.

Art collecting is a polyhedral practice that includes all these attributes in its final praxis. Despite the economic value that art has by itself, depending on fixed and known elements, it also depends on subjective and ephemeral values, on the sensations transmitted to the buyer, on the look that is deposited on a piece and the link that arises with it. In analogy, we could say that the acquisition of an artwork is the beginning of a committed relationship that occupies space, a time and an emotion inhabiting with its existence a concrete place.

Miguel Vallinas

Suppe n 29, 2019

Photography

70 x 70cm

According to Claude Lévi-Strauss "this avid and ambitious desire to take possession of the object for the benefit of the owner, or even the spectator, constitutes one of the most original features of the art of Occidental civilization" (Mythologies, 1971). This idea put forward by the French anthropologist makes us reflect on ownership in art, on how the contemporary subject looks at objects and how this impulse of ownership is also developed from capitalism. This ostentation of property goes back especially to the Renaissance when artistic images were not only instruments of knowledge but also of possession, wealth and political advertising. Today it is still a contemporary scene, art collecting has a clear economic value that is developed in investment and personal appropriation as an indication of social status, but despite this, we cannot forget that there exists and is very relevant, the passionate collecting, an enthusiastic look that moves away from an exclusively economic materialization.

Carlos Tárdez

Fakir, 2018

Resina policromada y cuerda

10.5 x 9.5cm

Onay Rosquet

Tuesday, 2018

Oil on canvas

80 x 80cm

Several reports in the recent years, such as the one produced in 2017 by the La Caixa Foundation on The Spanish Art Market, show that one of the main challenges is to find new collectors. According to this same report, 40% of purchases in the galleries came from new buyers. To get started in collecting is a complex task for which it is necessary to activate a strategy of impulse from the diverse cultural agents. Galleries, institutions, art fairs or artistic consultancies are key elements to generate a network of initiation to collecting. Likewise, we must not forget that the greatest challenge lies in creating the real possibility of including the youngest in this practice.

One of the most attractive niches in the art market for the young segment is urban art. Thanks to the cultural proximity, the closeness of the streets which this style originates and in many cases the co-ethnic nature of the artists, it is easy for the first artistic acquisitions to be triggered from here. In Art Madrid, we have artists who fit into this style, as we believe that it is unequivocally necessary for urban art to be included in fairs and exhibitions because of its intrinsic artistic value and the inclusive effect it generates on the younger generation.

Okuda San Miguel

Grey Skull, 2018

17-ink hand-printed by Inkvisible Prints on 220 g pink fabriano paper

70 x 50cm

RLM

Sísifo, 2018

Cera y grafito sobre papel

21.5 x 31.5cm

The first challenge we face is the change of mentality. Getting rid of some premises that have been so socially entrenched about who can and should be collectors. To dismantle the need for economic fortune, family tradition, specialist knowledge or social class. It is necessary to question this so assimilated structure, to eliminate labels in order to start including other social groups that are potential art collectors.

José María de Francisco y Luis Caballero, in the prologue to his exemplary text Conversations with Contemporary Art Collectors (Madrid, 2018), defines contemporary art collecting as "a phenomenon in which three forces operate that come from three ancestral domains of human desires and needs embodied in Greek mythology by the three graces of Zeus: beauty (Algae), social habit (Eufrosine) and material wealth (Talia)". We can then extract, that it is from these three forces that we must begin to build the steps to follow.

Guim Tió Zarraluki

Travesia, 2019

Oil on linen

60 x 73cm

Learning to see, to look and to contemplate. Loving beauty and expanding our knowledge of it. It is possible to educate the eye through practice, developing this social habit with visits to museums, galleries and art fairs. Thus, it is also very useful to talk to artists or experts who can advise and guide us in the learning, to be able to establish our own vision of beauty as a subjective desire but strengthening it in some bases of artistic knowledge.

Mari Quiñonero

No.86, 2018

Pastel sobre papel

27 x 21cm

PichiAvo

Perseo, 2017

Mixed media on wood

120 x 120cm

Social habit is part of the tradition where many families continue inherited collections or start collecting thanks to the educational background they have received since childhood by being regular visitors to spaces dedicated to the art exhibition. But, like almost everything, it can be trained and extended if we practice it with a certain frequency based on the desire for knowledge and visual enjoyment.

Jorg Karg

Pont Neuf, 2020

Digital print

75 x 55cm

Finally, material wealth is the most complex factor we face. We could establish a long reflection about it, finding an endless number of nuances and positions contrary to the possession of the artistic object. But assuming that we start from the idea of the passionate collector as referred before, and starting from some economic scales to be able to activate the purchase, we must also observe that it is not necessary a fortune to open up the acquiring some works of art. Starting with emerging artists but with international recognition and knowing the art market in the most independent way without getting carried away by fashions is essential when it comes to detecting good buying opportunities.

In recent years, foundations, fairs and specialised companies have begun to develop advisory programs to promote the ecosystem of contemporary art. Purchases from €600 onwards establish a whole programme of guidance and accompaniment to include new generations and social classes in collecting.

In Art Madrid we have a wide range of prices for the works on display, thus, reaffirming our commitment to attract and involve a diverse public and strengthening the role of Art Madrid as a tool for social links and education.

The work of Julian Manzelli (Chu) (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1974) is situated within a field of research in which art adopts methodologies close to scientific thinking without renouncing its poetic and speculative dimension. His practice is structured as an open process of experimentation, in which the studio functions as a laboratory: a space for trial, error, and verification, oriented less toward the attainment of certainties than toward the production of new forms of perception. In this sense, his work enters into dialogue with an epistemology of uncertainty, akin to philosophical traditions that understand knowledge as a process of becoming rather than closure.

Manzelli explores interstitial zones, understood as spaces of transit and transformation. These ambiguous areas are not presented as undefined but as potential—sites where categories dissolve, allowing the emergence of hybrid, almost alchemical configurations that reprogram the gaze. Geometry, far from operating as a normative system, appears tense and destabilized. His precarious constructions articulate a crossing between intuition and reason, play and engineering, evoking a universal grammar present in both nature and symbolic thought. Thus, Manzelli’s works do not represent the world but rather transfigure it, activating questions rather than offering closed answers.

Avícola. Escultura magnética. Madera, imanes, laca automotriz y acero. 45 x 25 cm. 2022.

Science and its methods inspire your process. What kinds of parallels do you find between scientific thinking and artistic creation?

Science and art are two disciplines that I believe share a great deal and are undoubtedly deeply interconnected. I am interested in that point of intersection, and although they are often placed in opposition, I think they share a common origin. Both involve a continuous search, a need for answers that stems from curiosity rather than certainty, and that often—or in many cases—leads both artists and scientists into uncomfortable, uncertain positions, pushing them out of their comfort zones. I believe this is a fundamental and very compelling aspect shared by these two disciplines, which in some way define us as human beings.

In this sense, both share experimentation as a core axis of their practice. Trial and error, testing, and the entire process of experimentation are what generate development. In my case, this applies directly to the studio: I experience it as a laboratory where different projects are developed and materials are tested. It is as if one formulates a hypothesis and then puts it to the test—materials, procedures, forms, colors—and outcomes emerge. These results are not meant to be verified, but rather, in art, I believe their function is to generate new modes of perception, new ways of seeing, and new experiences.

Receptor Lunar #01. Ensamble de Madera Reciclada torneada. 102 x 26 x 26 cm. De la serie Fuerza orgánica. 2023.

You work within the interstices between the natural and the artificial, the figurative and the abstract. What interests you about these ambiguous zones, and what kinds of knowledge emerge from them?

I have always been quite restless, and that has led me to immerse myself in different fields and disciplines. I believe there is a special richness in interstitial spaces—in movement back and forth, in circulation between media. These spaces have always drawn my attention: ambiguous places, hybrid zones. There is something of an amphibious logic here—amphibians as entities that carry and transmit information, that share, that cross boundaries and membranes. In my case, this is closely linked to what I understand as freedom, especially at a time marked by categorization, labeling, and a profound distortion of the very concept of freedom.

On another level, more metaphysical in nature, it is within the mixture—within that blending—that the living energy of creating something new appears, which is undoubtedly a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human. It is as if “one thing becomes something else outside the mold.” This interaction is necessary to break structures, to build new ones, to transmute—to undergo something almost alchemical. I believe fixation is the enemy. In a way, ambiguity is what allows us to reprogram our gaze and generate new points of view.

De la serie Naturaleza orgánica. Madera torneada recuperada de podas de sequía y rezagos de construcción. 2025.

Movement, repetition, and sequence appear as visual strategies in your work. What role does seriality play in the generation of meaning?

Movement, repetition, and sequence are very present in my work. I have a long background in animation, and in some way that interest begins to filter into the other disciplines in which I work. Thus, movement also appears in my visual art practice.

Seriality is a way of thinking about time and of introducing a certain narrative and sense of action into the work, while at the same time conditioning the viewer’s experience. It invites the viewer to try to decipher repetition as a kind of progression. I am particularly interested in more abstract forms of narrative. In this type of narrative, where there is no clear figuration, repetition begins to establish a pulse, a “beat” that marks the passage of time. What is interesting, I think, is the realization that repetition is not exactly duplication, and that what seems identical begins to mutate over time, through rhythm, or through its own unfolding history.

De la serie Naturaleza orgánica. Madera torneada recuperada de podas de sequía y rezagos de construcción. 2025.

You work with geometric and constructive systems. What role does geometry play as a symbolic language within your practice?

Geometry is present in my work in multiple forms and dimensions, generating different dynamics. Generally, I tend to put it into crisis, into tension. When one engages closely with my works, it becomes clear that constructions based on imprecise and unstable balance predominate. I am not interested in symmetry or exactness, but rather in a dynamic construction that proposes a situation. I do not conceive of geometry as a rigid system.

I believe this is where a bridge is established between the intuitive and the rational, between playfulness and engineering—those unexpected crossings. At the same time, geometry functions as a code, a language that connects us to a universal grammar present in nature, in fractals, and that undoubtedly refers to symbolism. It is there that an interesting portal opens, where the work begins to re-signify itself and becomes a process of meaning-making external to itself, entirely uncertain. The results of my works are not pieces that represent; rather, I believe they are pieces that transfigure and, in doing so, generate questions.

WIP. Madera torneada recuperada de podas de sequía y rezagos de contrucción. 2022.

To what extent do you plan your works, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for error?

In terms of planning, it depends greatly on the project and even on the day. Some projects, due to their scale or complexity, require careful planning, especially when they involve the participation of other people. In many cases, planning is undoubtedly essential.

That said, in the projects I do plan, I am always interested in leaving space for improvisation, where chance or the unfolding of the process itself can come into play. I believe this is where interesting things begin to emerge, and it is important not to let them pass by. Personally, I would find it very boring to work on pieces whose outcome I already know in advance. For me, the realization of each work is an uncertain journey; I do not know where it will lead, and I believe that is where its potential lies—not only for me, but also for the work itself and for the viewer’s experience.