How did you get to know this year’s nominees, Gideon Kiefer,

Alice Maher and Ettore Tripodi?

Gideon Kiefer was introduced to us by the gallery owner Martin

Kudlek, with whom we collaborated last year for the works of

Christos Venetis, and we really liked the somewhat Germanic atmosphere that emanates from his world. We met Alice Maher a

long time ago, at her exhibition at the David Nolan Gallery in New

York. Her acerbic line, mixing subversion and metamorphosis, really

appealed to us. Then we recently discovered Ettore Tripodi in the

collection of Monsieur Ramo, who was a huge drawing enthusiast.

It was love at first sight: his works are original and enriched with

very dreamlike atmospheres.

Do this year’s works have a common theme ? The artists whom

you presented last year spoke a lot about history and geopolitics.

A form of radicalness may perhaps emanate from the drawings

of the artists we selected, but, first and foremost, they were our

firm favourites. Today’s very international art world means that the number of artists has greatly increased. Through this prize, it

seems to us that we may not only assert our taste in art, but also

guide those who follow us and introduce them to true discoveries.

While this year’s artists do not explore common subjects, all of

them bear witness to an underlying violence. Gideon Kiefer talks

a great deal about ecology; Alice Maher clearly makes a feminist

statement and Ettore Tripodi recalls the wild side that a falsely

mundane reality may hide

On 12 November, you also launched the fourth exhibition in

the space now reserved for you at the Centre Pompidou, Paris,

following the donation of part of your collection. What’s this

exhibition about?

It is entitled “Sur le Chemin” and sprang from our reflection on

the idea of home, owing to the imminent closure of the museum.

We established a sort of metaphor by imagining that it was the

path that would lead us elsewhere… especially with artists such

as Georg Baselitz, Penny Hes Yassour, Kcho, Pavel Pepperstein

and Renie Spoelstra.

Will your collection continue to travel abroad in tandem?

Yes, it will go to the Latvian National Museum of Art, in Riga, in

2026, which will be the sixth exhibition of works from the Centre

Pompidou collection hosted abroad. We find this classical building

resembling an ancient palace charming, with its majestic series of

rooms adorned with wood. We are very involved in each of these

projects and continue to be ambassadors for our donation. 

         Interview Marie Maertens