As from October 2020 the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles is presenting a very personal take on contemporary artistic production: that of modern-day adventurer Erling Kagge. Seen through his eyes, contemporary art assumes its role as a compass.

Erling Kagge is a Norwegian explorer born in 1963 in Oslo. Famous for having successfully completed the Three Poles Challenge, reaching the South Pole, the North Pole and the summit of Mount Everest, he is also a lawyer, writer, publisher and collector. He has entrusted Bice Curiger, artistic director of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, with the task of curating an exhibition of his collection, the main strands of which reflect Kagge’s enduring sense of wonder and curiosity in the face of the world.

The Erling Kagge Collection today encompasses more than 800 works by artists of different nationalities and generations – all of them pieces that have helped Kagge, in his own words, “to grow”. The collection draws its coherence from its very diversity: there is nothing coincidental, therefore, in the fact that it contains objects playing upon visual perception, such as those by Olafur Eliasson, at the same time as critical works such as those by Klara Lidén, which evoke the notion of (topographical and conceptual) “underground”.

The exhibition My Cartography: The Erling Kagge Collection was previously shown at the Santander Art Gallery (Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid) and includes work by Diane Arbus, Tauba Auerbach, Trisha Donnelly, Raymond Pettibon, Wolfgang Tillmans and Franz West.