Jean-François Vernetti, Der Guinness Weltrekordhalter besitzt 11'111 Do-Not-Disturb-Hotelschilder aus rund 200 Ländern, © Guinness World Records

Zurich crime scene: collecting spray guns makes you happy

Editor Adrian Schräder

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The exhibition «Collectomania» at the Museum für Gestaltung explores why we collect. An interview with curator Karin Gimmi.

Ms. Gimmi, you are showing around 30 collections as part of the "Collectomania" exhibition, from Barbie dolls to sinfully expensive sneakers and postcards. What gave the impetus for the exhibition? Legend has it that a water pistol was at the beginning.
In fact, I was particularly taken with an orange-green plastic reptile! It was in a box of fantastic spray objects from the 1970s. Only recently, Bice Curiger had donated them to our museum. I wondered what might have driven the former curator at the Kunsthaus Zürich, co-founder of the art magazine Parkett, and director of a biennial in Venice to collect these trash objects? In general, what drives people who collect things?

What is the answer?
Collecting is a passion - even if there is a lot of hard work, sophisticated strategies or even business thinking behind it! Collectors are rewarded with emotions, they acquire knowledge and meet interesting people. The motives behind them are as diverse as the collections themselves: There are hardly any limits or no-goes. One wants to set records, the other wants to have that one special piece in his collection.

Why do people collect old car keys, for example?
Keys and locks are fascinating as everyday objects that have been technically developed and aesthetically designed by people. They have been for a long time. In the famous "Encyclopédie" by Diderot and D'Alembert from the 18th century, there are pages and pages of illustrations about them. As for the collection of contemporary car keys we have on display, they are all found objects. Equipped with a chip and programmed, they are worthless after being lost. Roland Widmer, who runs a resale shop for found objects in Zurich, found them interesting as contemporary witnesses. His car key collection grows almost daily.

Is it mostly about nostalgia? About holding on to time?
Nostalgia and memories of one's childhood are strong personal collector motives. Collections often have the function of lifting an object out of everyday use, saving it from oblivion and thus giving it a new, perhaps "higher" meaning.

We have already experienced it now: There are very different reasons for becoming a collector. But what are the commonalities?
What many private collectors have in common is that what they do makes sense and makes them happy. Collectors are happy people, as neurological studies have recently shown.

Bettina Dorfmann, Die Guinness Weltrekordhalterin besitzt 18’000 Barbiepuppen, 2011, Foto:
Ranald Mackechnie

Sergio Muster, Der Sneakerness-Gründer sammelt rare Stücke aus Leidenschaft und als Wertanlage,
2022, Foto: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, ZHdK, Umberto Romito und Ivan Šuta

Wasserpistolen, gesammelt von der Kuratorin Bice Curiger, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Designsammlung,
2022, Foto: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, ZHdK, Umberto Romito und Ivan
Šuta

Beat Schlatter, Der Komiker und Schauspieler (neuste Bühnenproduktion: Ab die Post) sammelt
Postkarten, 2022, Foto: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, ZHdK, Umberto Romito und Ivan Šuta

Do all collectors like to show their collections? Is that what they have in common: the pride, the joy of collecting?
Most collectors want to show their collections, share their experiences and knowledge. It fills them with joy to be able to communicate with others about their object.

Some of the collections on display have made it into the Guinness Book of Records. Is this the crowning achievement for the collectors?
While for some it is about collecting as many objects as possible, others are interested in selected rarities and not in the quantity per se.

What do the objects tell us? What do we learn from a collection of Do Not Disturb signs from all over the world?
In "Collectomania" we also try to show the stories behind the objects. In this way, even objects that are not very valuable in themselves, become gems. Just imagine: Someone has spent years working in hotels all over the world. With the door signs that he brings home from everywhere, suddenly his environment also participates. For people who deal with graphics, there is both good and really bad design to be seen. And for all of us, it's interesting to note that the gesture of putting your finger to your mouth is apparently understood in different cultures as "shhhh," please be quiet!

Is there a collection that you would have liked to show but couldn't?
Yes, I would have liked to show a collection of very different staircases that a gentleman in England has assembled. He has a collection housed in a hangar.

Is the exhibition actually limited to Switzerland?
No, the artist Dina Kelberman, who collects Google and Tumblr images, works in the U.S., an important Panini collection is from Italy, the world's largest Barbie collection is that of Bettina Dorfmann in Germany, just to mention these.

The exhibition also shows official collections - things confiscated at customs, for example. It's nice that this collection is now not only allowed to delight customs officers. How come?
The collection of customs seizures should not actually exist! It is a scandal that even today people bring whole elephant teeth, stuffed alligators or big cat fur as souvenirs across the border!

Your favorite collection?
I'm interested in the thing as a whole, I'm fascinated by people's fascination with things. I don't have any collecting fever myself.

The exhibition "Collectomania" can be seen at the Museum für Gestaltung on the Toni Areal until the beginning of January 2023. On September 15, Karin Gimmi talks with Salome Hohl, director of the Cabaret Voltaire, about "Collectomania: What's the Point of Order?" and on November 3 with Severin Rüegg, Head of Collection, Foundation for Art, Culture and History about "Contradictory Collections? We're talking about it!".

This text has been translated by DeepL.

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Collectomania - Universes of Collecting

The exhibition presents a wide variety of collections from private and institutional collectors.

Permanent exhibition

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Collectomania

Führung durch die aktuelle Ausstellung.

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Gespräch: Sammelsurien - Was soll die Ordnung?

Ein Austausch über Dadaismus und die Kunst des Sammelns.

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Collectomania – Universes of Collecting

Tour of the exhibition «Collectomania» in English.

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Collectomania

Geführter Rundgang.

Captions:

Bettina Dorfmann, The Guinness World Record holder owns 18,000 Barbie dolls, 2011, Photo: Ranald Mackechnie, © Guinness World Record.

Sergio Muster, The Sneakerness founder collects rare pieces out of passion and as an investment, 2022, Photo: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, ZHdK, Umberto Romito und Ivan Šuta

Water pistols collected by curator Bice Curiger, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, design collection, 2022, photo: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, ZHdK, Umberto Romito and Iva Šuta

Beat Schlatter, The comedian and actor (latest stage production: Ab die Post) collects postcards, 2022, Photo: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, ZHdK, Umberto Romito und Ivan Šuta

Jean-François Vernetti, The Guinness World Record holder owns 11,111 Do-Not-Disturb hotel signs from around 200 countries, © Guinness World Records.

Published from Adrian Schräder on August 11, 2022.