INTERVIEW VIDEO
How about we meet?
Idan explains what a collector's meeting is.
Meeting with the artist photographer Idan Wizen, who receives us in his Parisian workshop. Creator of various artistic series, he has set up “collector meetings” in order to help its buyers in their choice. Intrigued by this type of meeting which is unknown to me, I went to meet him to find out more.
FIND OUT MORE
Would you prefer to read than watch a video?
Who are you ? And what are you doing ?
My name is Idan Wizen, I am a plastic photographer, that is I mainly produce works of art and I offer them in gallery, on exhibition, and now a lot of internet sales.
Ok, so if we want to buy your works of art because we have a crush, how does that happen?
There are two solutions. You can come and see us in exhibitions, in galleries, you can order directly on the Internet, as in any online store. But buying an artwork is not like buying a pair of shoes or a t-shirt, it’s a little more involving, more complex and so, with the studio team, we decided to set up meeting collectors. These are appointments, either at my face-to-face workshop, or simply by video conference where I will meet the person who is interested, exchange, talk, discuss to show all different things, compositions, that I can do.
How does an appointment go?
The main idea is to have a nice time. We’re going to talk, about art, a bit about my art in particular. And then depending on the interest of the person, on the collections, on the formats, on what he would like, we are going to watch. Look at different prints, search for exclusives, we are going to look at small formats, large formats, I will be able to show different things. We will look how we can make compositions. It is an assembly of several works of art that will be able to talk to each other and give a stronger meaning. We will also be able to look at everything that is finished. A photo print is paper, you can laminate it, you can frame it. We’re gonna have a lot of frames that we’re gonna chase, frames elders here at the studio.
I see that you do it face-to-face but if you don’t live in Paris, do you offer another solution?
Yes, with the covid, we necessarily started videoconferencing, a bit like everyone else, and it is necessarily less good. We see the works less, we understand them less well, but it is a very good option. If you have the opportunity if you are in Paris, come and see in the studio instead. We are located in the 13ᵉ arrondissement. If you’re far away, we can make appointments with people who are in New York, in Los Angeles or on the other side of the world. It works very well in video conferences. I’m going to share my screen, we’ll be able to watch compositions, I will show different things. It remains a nice, pleasant moment. And then the advantage of the video is when we receive the works that we ordered we see them in real life , and it’s always much better than on a screen.
And the term collector can sometimes seem a little strong, even if I do not consider myself as someone who collects art, Is this appointment accessible to you?
Yes ! You don’t have to be a multi-billionaire to come see me. We will be accessible to connoisseurs, including people who know nothing, who have never bought artwork, who just want to discover. The idea is to accompany them, that I show them, that I explain to them in detail, with very reasonable budgets. So there is no need to be an art collector, to be able to buy a work and be able to come to the collector’s appointment.
Does making an appointment, reserving a time slot, have a cost?
No, it’s totally free. The idea is to come, find out, let me show you, etc… And there is not even an obligation to purchase, that is to say that if in the end, at the end of the meeting, there is nothing that tempts you, you haven’t decided yet. This is fine. The only thing I ask is to have a minimum of interest to acquire an artwork, but there is no formal obligation.
Are you currently working on a particular project?
I am currently in the middle of writing a project called We Tomorrow, which is a bit of a futurologist’s project, where I try to imagine what man will be like in the decades to come. Man and more generally the societies that form humanity. And then, I’m still working on putting on exhibitions, both of Who’s That Nude In The Living Room, as well as other projects like Into The Box, The World We Left Them, or of course Hinders.
If you want to make a collector’s appointment, just go to Idan Wizen’s website. You can choose an online, video or face-to-face appointment.