For co-founder Sandra Terdjman and Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga, the director of KADIST’s Paris space, the relationship between patronage and market is ripe for reinvention

As told to Ingrid Luquet-Gad

Discover a truly unique art foundation: KADIST

Sandra Terdjman: KADIST was created over 20 years ago. From the outset, its mission has been to highlight the role of artists in social debates and to support the understanding of the world they bring. The collection was the first pillar, as we began acquiring artists’ works before developing the exhibition program. The collection is a collective endeavor put together by regional sub-committees: 27 advisors based in different parts of the world, who bring a local knowledge of their region. These diverse, decentralized, and multicultural points of view are what make KADIST so unique. This way of working is relatively unique. In terms of numbers, the collection comprises works by 1,200 artists of 115 different nationalities. It’s not just a collection of artworks, but a transnational network of relationships.
KADIST has two spaces: one in San Francisco, and since 2006, one in Paris. Both are exhibition and residency spaces. We also have offices in Mexico City and Beijing. When an artist enters the collection, we continue our dialogue with them through the program and residencies. In Paris, for example, we acquired works by artists and subsequently organized their first residencies or solo exhibitions in France, including <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7089/Danh-Vo" target="_blank">Danh Vo</a> in 2009 and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7962/Wilfredo-Prieto" target="_blank">Wilfredo Prieto </a>in 2006. A little later, it was the same for Daniela Ortiz and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/36742/Martine-Syms" target="_blank">Martine Syms</a>. Right from the start, in 2008 and 2009, we also supported curators in residence: Cosmin Costinas and Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, who have gone on to direct institutions, had their first exhibition in France in this context. Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga, who is now the director of our space in Paris, was also a resident from 2014 to 2015.

Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga: During my residency, I developed the first project of a long curatorial research, which helped define the way I conceive curating. In my opinion, this long-term support is unique.
Sandra Terdjman: When we opened the Paris venue in 2006, the proposal was very atypical on the French landscape. We focused on international exchange. We also had a unique location: Montmartre, where KADIST, Paris is located, was not an epicenter of the art scene like the 13th arrondissement with rue Louise Weiss, or the Marais.
The new series of collaborations ‘Collection Nomade KADIST’, which started in July 2023, reflects the future of a networked institution like ours and its collection. Our collection comprises 2,200 pieces and is growing by around 100 a year. How can we continue to renew it over time, while maintaining its relevance and accessibility? The main idea is to offer long-term loans to international museums and institutions, who then take over the collection to carry out a 3- to 5-year program. The first of these collaborations has just been launched with the Centre Pompidou around the theme of artificial intelligence and artistic creation, which will be explored over the next 3 years. The nomadic collection is an opportunity for loans, commissions or co-productions, and finally donations, in order to multiply the ways of working between the public and private sectors.

Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga: The first event at the Centre Pompidou on July 13 (‘The future isn’t what it used to be – A new generation of texts and images’) was a seminar that set out the framework, issues, and urgencies of the subject, while opening up a space for discussion. Artificial intelligence, and advanced technologies in general, are overturning the paradigms of creation and otherness. In 2024, an intervention will take place in the spaces of the Centre Pompidou, then in 2025, when the Pompidou is closed for renovation, in the public space.
Sandra Terdjman: We are very close to the Cité internationale des arts [an artist-in-residence building complex] both geographically and through our artistic affinities. We frequently go there to discover artists, for studio visits, and we connect the artists we host with their team. We also visit venues such as POUSH in Aubervilliers, which hosts studios for artists. Of course, we work a lot with galleries, outside of and during fairs.

Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga: It was at the Cité internationale des arts, for example, that we discovered the work of Michelle and Noel Keserwany. We committed to co-producing their first medium-length film, Les chenilles (2022) in collaboration with the Biennale de Lyon. We also opened up our space to them by organizing encounters in resonance with other artists.
Through our commitment to supporting artists’ creative and research processes, we receive many more production requests for projects than we did 10 years ago. In early October, we will open an exhibition that also stems from a collaboration, this time with the Sharjah Art Foundation, that began with the co-production of <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/34738/Farah-Al-Qasimi" target="_blank">Farah Al Qasimi</a>’s film Um Al Dhabaab (Mother of Fog) (2023) for the Sharjah Biennial.
Sandra Terdjman: As far as the marketplace is concerned, I still see an important separation. The commodification of certain works is still happening just as fast, prices are rising, and the current importance of painting is contributing to something a little more conservative in the way collectors are committing themselves. This direction of the art market is antithetical to the current need for artists to move towards much more engaged, collective, social work that goes beyond the object. Some collectors are also moving in this direction, and I would say that two paths are emerging for collectors: the market and patronage. For our part, we must succeed in bringing them together.

Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga: Among the artists we've become aware of recently are Abdessamad El Montassir, presented at Bétonsalon earlier this summer, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed, a Brooklyn-based artist and publisher, who has just joined the collection. I could also mention Holly Herndon and Matthew Dryhurst, whose video I'M HERE 17.12.2022 5:44
(2023) explores modes of sharing intimate experiences in a respectful way using advanced technologies, and which was shown at our inaugural symposium at the Centre Pompidou.’
Sandra Terdjman: At the symposium, we also presented the work of Juan Obando, a Colombian artist who made the film They/Them (2023) about artificial intelligence and deep fakes. In Cotonou this year, I also came across the work of Beninese artist Ishola Akpo, thanks to the Fondation Zinsou. I'm also thinking of <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/9180/Hajra-Waheed" target="_blank">Hajra Waheed</a>’s moving sound installation Hum II (2023), which gathers women's voices from revolts and struggles all over the world and was presented at the Sharjah Biennial, or Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum's paintings, which I discovered at the same time. I'm also thinking of artist Ashfika Rahman, who created a beautiful installation for the Dhaka Art Summit. Finally, we recently showed the work of the Tunisian artist Younès Ben Slimane, who attended Le Fresnoy but was introduced to us by curator Camille Lévy Sarfati during his residency at KADIST Paris. It's by traveling for art events, and thanks to the essential work of art centers, museums, and foundations that we meet artists and discover new practices.

Ingrid Luquet-Gad is an art critic and PhD candidate based in Paris. She is the arts editor of Les Inrockuptibles, a contributing editor at Spike art magazine, and a journalist for Flash Art.
English translation: Art Basel. 
Published on September 13, 2023.
Caption for full-bleed images, from top to bottom: 1.&nbsp;Farah Al Qasimi, Um Al Dhabaab (Mother of Fog)&nbsp;(detail) ©&nbsp;Courtesy of the artist and&nbsp;The Third Line, Dubai. 2.&nbsp;KADIST Paris, 2023 © Photograph by Aurélien Mole. 3.&nbsp;Martine Syms, SHE MAD - Laughing Gas, 2016. Video installation&nbsp;©&nbsp;Courtesy of the&nbsp;artist and collection KADIST.

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