The collector's impact on the creation process of siterelated artworks

The collector’s role within the art world is at times regarded suspiciously. This article aims to provide a differentiated view on the collector’s influence on the creation process of artworks, addressing the complexity of contemporary art making and showing that the role actors play in the making process is often entangled. It aims to unravel some of the practices that determine the creation of site-related artworks. Collectors can stipulate a space for siterelated artworks to evolve, and in providing this space can influence the artwork’s creation, or even become a participant or collaborator. Nicolas Bourriaud’s definition of relational art and Tatja Scholte’s understanding of site-specificity as dynamic relational networks is employed to extend Kwon’s three types of site-specificity, in order to define a fourth type of site-specificity anchored in what I call ‘a relational site’. The relational site can be established in the process ofcreation through the participation of both artist and collector. By studying the biographies of three artworks from two different collections – the Eyck collection in Limburg and the Haubrok collection in Berlin – the collector’s influence onthe accordance of site-relation is illuminated