The Total Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul has opened "Somebody Has to Collect It," an exhibition featuring works from the collection of French art collectors Catherine and Renato Casciani. Running from April 30 to May 31, the show marks the couple's first major presentation in Korea and inaugurates the museum's new "Collector/tion" project, which reframes collectors not as buyers but as actors at the intersection of capital, memory, and value-making. The exhibition includes 22 artists and collectives, with a focus on video art addressing themes such as precarious labor, state violence, colonial inheritance, climate crisis, and queer intimacy. It is also an official program of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France.
The exhibition matters because it challenges the traditional view of art collecting as private ownership and instead presents it as a sustained act of responsibility and care. The Cascianis' practice, which includes the collaborative buying project "Cadre blanc" and the founding of the video art fair "Around Video" in Lille, exemplifies an alternative model of collecting that prioritizes shared access and support for emerging artists. For the Total Museum, celebrating its 50th anniversary, the show continues a line of inquiry begun with its 2023-25 collection exhibition "Hello, I'm Noh Joon-eui," positioning collecting as a critical, attentive practice rather than a mere transaction.