Alessandra Saviotti interviews Christiane Berndes, former curator and head of collections at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (NL) and Leanne Green, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Whitworth in Manchester (UK).

Both Berndes and Green were responsible within their institutions, for the acquisition of the Arte Útil archive. The process started back in 2017, when a group of members of the Association de Arte Útil together with the initiator, Tania Bruguera, started a collective writing process aiming at reframing the idea of collecting such project, after an invitation from Stephen Wright. At the outset, Wright proposed this challenge to Alexandre Bohn, director of FRAC Poitou-Charents, that was the first institution to sign and therefore commit to support the Asociation through what became the ‘Certificate of usership’.