The Critical Collecting project has arrived at its fifth edition. Its presence on our platform will happen in two stages. On 27 November, for Digital Black, ten new texts of the 2020 edition will be published. As of 15 December, simultaneously with the last phase of the Fair, there will be the presentation of an itinerary linked to the history of the past editions of Critical Collecting: a collector for each one of the four previous editions will be invited to select an artist from the platform, then inviting the public to follow the chosen artist and learn more about his or her work. All of this will be channeled in the form of short videos in which the collector will explain the reasons for his or her choice.
With Critical Collecting through the years we have been able to bring together a corpus of fifty texts written by young art critics about 50 Italian collections. This is starting to become a wide and detailed analysis of Italian collecting, a peculiar reality even on an international plane. There are many Italian collectors. Their average age is quite young, they are highly prepared and, most interestingly, they come from the most varied contexts, from the Alps to Sicily, from the country to large cities. At an international level, this is a unique feature. In recent years, moreover, their manner of collecting has evolved and become even more sophisticated. Five years ago, when we started, the dominating taste was still heavily influenced by exasperated xenophilia. Today, the trend has completely turned around and now more and more collectors, especially the younger ones, love buying and sponsoring Italian art. Undoubtedly, the work done by ArtVerona in these years – even when the attention of the national scene seemed turned elsewhere – played a leading role.
