Collectors' Forum

Collectors' Forum is a project by Open Arts Foundation, which aims to introduce the Bulgarian audience to the concept of collecting and building a collection of contemporary art.

Open Arts Foundation Presents:


Collectors’ Forum 2022
18 November 2022, 18:00, Sofia City Art Gallery, 1, Gen. Gurko str., free entry
Discussion with Frédéric de Goldschmidt, collector, Brussels
Moderator: Vesselina Sarieva

Collectors’ Forum was initiated in 2011 as an educational platform organized by Open Arts Foundation, which introduces the audience to Bulgarian and international established collecting practices. The project encourages young collectors to create and maintain collections, raises questions and inspires discussions. Collectors’ Forum spans across multiple genres and its regular annual programme incorporates a variety of formats: presentations, lectures, publications, campaigns, international visits, public and private meetings between collectors and artists, gallerists and curators.

In 2022, Collectors’ Forum is pleased to present the Brussel-based collector Frédéric de Goldschmidt, who will share his experience from his many years of professional practice in art collecting, curating and producing. The Bulgarian audience will have the opportunity to join the discussion, in which he will talk about his activities beyond business, elaborating on the passion and ethics needed for successful collecting at a professional level.

Frédéric de Goldschmidt is a French collector living and working in Brussels, where ‘Cloud Seven’, the exhibition and co-working space founded by him, is located. His professional expertise goes beyond the field of visual arts - he graduated in business and communications, anthropology, and produced interactive media, television programmes and films. The collector is a member of the Acquisitions Committee of the KANAL Foundation, Brussels, and is President of the Prix des Amis du Palais de Tokyo, Paris. 

Frédéric has been collecting works since he was a teenager, but his first serious collecting purchase was in 2007. Soon after, he became dedicated to supporting young artists and active work with curators and institutions. His collection is not based on a specific concept, but Frédéric admits he feels drawn to unconventional materials. Many of the works are by young artists, however they engage in a dialogue with works from the 1960s and 1970s by art movements with a historic significance, such as the Zero Group, Arte Povera, and conceptual and minimalist art. The selection is open to the general public, and in this regard Frédéric says, ‘Collectors do not own the works, they are their custodians with a responsibility to share the works with those who want to study or just enjoy them.’

The collector is also the co-curator of exhibitions such as White Covers (2017) and Inaspettatamente (2021). In the exhibition Not Really Really (2015), Frédéric also revealed his interest in taking another look at the institution through reorganization of the traditional arrangement of gallery spaces.

Within Collectors’ Forum, at the invitation of Vesselina Sarieva, Frédéric de Goldschmidt will visit Plovdiv and Sofia, where he will have meetings with artists and will visit cultural institutions. The discussion, which will take place on 18 November 2022 in Sofia, will not only be a presentation by the collector of some principles of collection management but an opportunity for questions and talks.