Guilty Pleasures

It has always fascinated me how such fine materials as fired kaolin, feldspar and quartz can be turned into something that seems to have the lightness of pistachio ice cream and yet endure for eternity. My first memory of porcelain is from my childhood: the shelves in my mother’s porcelain cupboard suddenly collapsed, just like that, it couldn’t be helped. I suspect that the planks simply gave way under the ever-growing amount of china. There was a huge crash, and endless amounts of shards suddenly lay on the floor. My poor mother was devastated, but this key experience led me, strangely enough, to this specific craftwork. Over the years, my passion was cemented in the manufactories in Germany in particular: Meissen, KPM, Nymphenburg, Hutschenreuther or Rosenthal. They and many more induced me to become a collector.

When it comes to figurines, I concentrate on animals and dancers, preferably both together! But what is most important Is that the face of the figure should be meticulously executed. There are two designers who belong for me to the unrivaled luminaries of porcelain art: Johann Joachim Kaendler, who died in the 18th century, and Marguerite Friedländer, who cannot be overestimated, and who is for me the most impressive Bauhaus porcelain modeler. The epitome of guilty pleasures? Pistachio ice cream from a delicate porcelain bowl.

Julia Stoschek owns one of the world’s largest private collections of time-based art. In 2002, she founded the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION, focusing on works from the fields of video, film and digital art by international artists since the 1960s. Since 2007, the collection has been open to the public through solo and group exhibitions in Düsseldorf, and in 2016, a second exhibition house opened in Berlin-Mitte. Alongside her work as a collector, Julia Stoschek supports institutions, artists and scholars in the realisation of projects in the field of time-based art, and is involved in the committees of international institutions. Among other positions, she is on the Board of Directors of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, a member of the Board of Trustees at MOCA, Los Angeles, on the Acquisitions Committee of the Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf, and part of the Performance Committee of the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York. Current exhibitions: A FIRE IN MY BELLY, JSC Berlin (until 12.12.2021); JSC ON VIEW: MYTHOLOGISTS, JSC Düsseldorf (until 19.12.2021); JEREMY SHAW: QUANTIFICATION TRILOGY, JSC Düsseldorf (until 19.12.2021). Opening times: www.jsc.art