COLLEGIUM Production • Investigation • Art | Page 9

Contemporary Art
“Art is not something pleasant or disinterested
but fundamentally dangerous as it looks
to the depths of existence.”
Plato
I started collecting in the 80’s, but it was not until the new millennium that Adras-
tus Collection was named and conceived as a detonator project, with the nature
and vocation to generate social change, sustainable intellectual stimulation and
perpetuate well-being. I mainly decided to do so because I have always believed
that art has the power to trigger an enhanced understanding of ourselves and
to build vibrant societies. I belive in the incalculable social value of this activity.
Collecting is not merely to accumulate products of the same class, but to com-
plexly articulate these materials. Thus, to collect is to connect, to arrange, it is to
structure a set of things in order to give them meaning. Why? Contrary to most,
my activity derives from a rational exercise and the inevitable need to be useful to
others. Therefore, the collection is a tool, not a goal.
01. Adrastus Collection
I descend from ancient Castilian roots. I spent my youth in Arévalo and Madrid un-
til higher education. I left Castile when I was still young, but Castile never left me.
In this sense, Arévalo is crowned as the masterpiece of our collection. This is the
same city that received the multiculturalism of the Jews, Muslims and Christians
before the reunification of the kingdoms of Spain, and it is the scenery of Mudejar
architecture, austere but magnificent palaces and churches, as well as the home
of illustrious characters such as Isabella I of Castile and St. Ignatius of Loyola
that excel among others. Arévalo is the conjunction of the intellectual knowledge
represented by the logistical level, the historical relevance and the educational
vocation epitomized in the Jesuit College and the emotional knowledge that COL-
LEGIUM brings for the creation of ideas or concepts.
Collegium. Production. Research. Art.
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