When Art and Life Move in Lockstep with Linda Du

My guest today is one of the most eclectic collectors I've come across. Linda Du is the founder of fintech startup Moola, splitting her time between Berlin and London. She's drawn to the overlaps between art, tech and money: three worlds that rarely speak to each other, but which she moves between seamlessly. One example: she applies the economic concept of utility to her collecting. In a nutshell, a way of measuring satisfaction rather than money, in this case the joy she gets from the art she acquires. I was particularly struck by how woven art is into Linda's life. Art seems to be much more than a backdrop or a set of personal anecdotes for her, rather something that moves in lockstep with however she's living at the time. Many of her pieces were gifts; the ones she bought herself tend to mark meaningful moments. Linda collects largely outside the traditional art ecosystem, gravitating toward smaller regional galleries and artist-led spaces, while also buying blue-chip editions through Avant Arte. In this episode, we talk about how Linda turned a piece of family history into one of her most meaningful artworks, why the resale side of the art market is murkier than people expect, how Burning Man shaped the way she thinks about experiencing art and in the spirit of ecclctisim, are even given glimpse into her own crypto strategy. References from the episode: Ai Weiwei Dima Melancholiac Gabriela Těthalová Dirimart Gallery Themba Khumalo Sebastian Welzel Ahmad al Shareef Nicolas Scalbert Blue Lobster Avant Arte Christine Ödlund The Art Journal Next-Gen Collectors Interview Twilight Sculpture Garden (Jardin du Crépuscule) Naïve Art Niki de Saint Phalle Il Giardino Dei Tarocchi The Borderland Benjamin Langholz Triple Trouble Damien Hirst Shepard Fairey Invader Fotografiska Berlin Zhang Huan