The 2021 Apprentice Collectors

Rita Ferreira

Mal-que-mer, 2020

Installation (six oils on paper, steel cables, clamps and an iron structure)

339 x 244 x 864 cm

Courtesy of the artist and 3+1 Arte Contemporânea Gallery, Lisbon

The "Apprentice Collectors," initiated in 2017 by the New National Museum of Monaco, is an educational programme supported by SOGEDA (Society for the Management of Authors' Rights) which aims to familiarise teenagers with contemporary art, as well with as the main role of a museum – collecting.

For this 5^th event, the project involved Year 13 students from the Art option at the François d'Assise-Nicolas Barré and Albert 1er high schools. Accompanied by their teachers, Laurent Papillon and Jean-Guy Cuomo, and Benjamin Laugier, Head of Public Relations at the NMNM, the students took part in a series of meetings, discussions, visits and workshops throughout the year.

The "apprentice collectors" also undertook research and selected one or more works by the same artist via the digital platform of the contemporary art fair ARCOmadrid.  For the first time, their acquisition budget was set at EUR 20,000.

On Wednesday 2 June, the students presented and defended their choices before a jury comprised of Françoise Gamerdinger, Director of Cultural Affairs, Monaco, Sylvain Lizon, Director of the Villa Arson (Nice), Delphine Reiss Pastor, collector and member of the NMNM Circle of Patrons, Björn Dahlström, Director of the NMNM and Célia Bernasconi, Chief Curator of the NMNM.

This year, the installation Mal-que-mer, 2020, by Rita Ferreira (born in Óbidos, Portugal, in 1991), acquired from the 3+1 Arte Contemporânea Gallery, Lisbon, and presented by Inès Iantosca, a student at the Lycée Albert I, was added to the NMNM's collection.

Previous events have enabled works by Andreas Angelidakis, Mark Dion, Carsten Höller, Pierre Joseph, Mika Rottenberg and Xavier Theunis to be acquired.

©Direction de la Communication / Michael Alesi