Karolina Blasiak interviewed Dakis Joannou, the Cypriot Industrialist, Art Collector for Rosemont Art Advisory monthly newsletter. If you want to receive our newsletter, please contact her: k.blasiak@rosemont-mc.com
In our new project to present the silhouettes of art collectors who actually live day by day surrounded by their art, Rosemont Art Advisory is honoured to present to you our exclusive interview with Mr. Dakis Joannou, Greek Cypriot industrialist and passionate art collector. He is considered to be one of the leading collectors of contemporary art in the world and is famous for acquisitions such as the Jeff Koons designed yacht “Guilty”. Mr. Joannou is indeed “unique and unlike any other art collector today, deemed as a non-traditionalist” and an omnivorous art collector, his collection at the DESTE Foundation in Athens is a testament to that. DESTE literally translated from Greek meaning “to see”, is devoted to promote ideas, collect and build a platform for young emerging artists. His collection reflects the relationships he has developed with artists. The collection at the foundation has also grown to be remarkably popular and demanded by fellow museums, institutions including Moma, Saatchi Gallery, Documenta. We wish to thank Mr. Joannou for the pleasure of making the interview with us and the DESTE Foundation for ongoing collaboration. Wishing you all a great artistic summer of 2020 and make sure to visit Hydra and the Slaughter House Art Center this summer. For more information please contact: k.blasiak@rosemont-mc.com
To quote your words: “I thought collecting was a very selfish thing, to take the work away from the public. I didn’t understand it actually, that’s why I hated it.”
Please tell us when did you start to collect and what made you start to find passion and pleasure in collecting? What was the trigger in the process?
You established the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, a non profit that organises exhibitions and publications with the goal of popularising both known and unknown artists.
What came first the desire for the foundation and the artists or the desire to collect?
I started DESTE in 1982 at the suggestion of Pierre Restany. I wanted to engage in the dialogue about Art and Life and the dialogue between visual arts and other forms of art. It was at that time that I did not want to collect.
In May 1985 I came across Jeff Koons’ “One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. JK 241 Series) that I acquired after meeting and spending some time with the artist. During my subsequent frequent visits to NY, I met many artists and acquired their work, replacing older works at home. By 1987 I realized I actually had a collection and then understood that collecting could be creative! I had the first show of the collection at DESTE in Athens in 1987 with Jeffrey Deitch, titled Cultural Geometry. The show was installed by the artist Haim Steinbach.
In 2009 DESTE opened an affiliate, called DESTE Project Space Slaughterhouse, in a former slaughterhouse on the island of Hydra. Every summer it invites individual artists or artists’ groups to create special projects and serves as a space for contemporary art exhibitions. Slaughterhouse has collaborated with Urs Fischer, Matthew Barney, Maurizio Cattelan, Doug Aitken Paweł Althamer;
Please tell us more about Hydra and your vision of this exhibition space, is there any hidden symbolic behind the slaughterhouse location? Which artist will exhibit next in Hydra and when can we visit the exhibition? You were at the “birth” of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum as the President of the Guggenheim International Directors’ Council. Do you think the Bilbao Effect could be repeated in Hydra today and whether such a model can even be considered current in today’s context? One of the goals was to attract tourists, how do you see happening it now with the virus restrictions? Is your collection digitized? Do you want to make it democratic online?
We love Hydra, it’s a magical place! I remember the Slaughterhouse still in operation with the sea painted red... I became fixated with the building after it stopped operating and the Municipality of Hydra finally let us use it for cultural purposes in 2008.
The artist is completely free to find his/her own connection with the island and the Slaughterhouse. And that has varied dramatically from year to year. The show always opens the Monday after Art Basel and closes at the end of October.
This year we have a commemorative show celebrating the 199 years from the start of the Greek Revolution for Independence, next year it will be Jeff Koons. Information on this and other DESTE activities can be found on our website at www.deste.gr.
Bilbao is a major institution, the Slaughterhouse is a small project space run in a very personal manner. They cannot be compared. We are pleased though with the response that the Slaughterhouse projects have in the art world.
What determines the price of a piece of artwork? What is for you the notion of value and price? How important is for you the encounter with the artist?
The market determines the price.
Time determines the value.
You are one of the very rare collectors who likes to live being surrounded by your art; not only you move pieces around; you also direct relationships – the way one piece of art forms a dialogue with another. Please tell us about the artworks and artists which left the deepest imprint on you?
It’s like asking a parent to distinguish between his children...!
Art on your yacht – please tell us more about the pleasure it has given you but also if you had any problems? Like conservation, handling, manoeuvring, any insurance problems? do you train your crew how they should handle the collection on board of your yacht. Do you consider your yacht designed by Jeff Koons as a sculptural work?
All art on Guilty is specifically done, embedded, and integrated. There are no conservation issues.
Do you come to Monaco often? How do you perceive the art scene in Monaco?
Unfortunately not often, so I am not really familiar with the art scene.
What is your dream right now?
For the COVID-19 vaccine to be discovered...
Credit Pictures:
1/ Portrait of Dakis Joannou; work in the background by David Shrigley (OK, 2010)
Photo © Alexia Antsakli
2/Front row from left to right: Kiki Smith, Lietta Joannou
Back row from left to right: Jeff Koons, Maria Joannou, Dakis Joannou
3/ Works pictured in the background from left to right: Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988
Jeff Koons, Olive Oyl, 2003
Jeff Koons, Louis XIV, 1986
Jeff Koons, Kangaroo (Blue), 1999
Work pictured in the foreground: Charles Ray, Aluminum Girl, 2003
Photo: Fanis Vlastaras & Rebecca Constantopoulou, Courtesy: DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art
4/Jeff Koons, One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. JK 241 Series), 1985
Glass, steel, sodium chloride reagent, distilled water, basketball - 164.5 x 78.1 x 33.7 cm
© Jeff Koons; photo: Douglas M. Parker Studios, Los Angeles
5/Maurizio Cattelan with his work We, 2010 at the DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra
Photo © Pierpaolo Ferrari