Art Public
Projects by international artists, sited day and night on the exhibition square and at Isteinerstrasse. Engaging directly with the artworld viewer for the duration of the show, they also connect with the daily lives of Basel's passersby. Selected by the Art Basel Committee, the artworks are then positioned in relationship to one another by Basel curator Martin Schwander.
Index Art 41 Basel, Art Public
A
Ai Weiwei: Field, 2010 | Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, Luzern
Micol Assaël: Mindfall, 2007 | Johann König, Berlin; Zero…, Milano
G
Dora García: Insulting the Audience, 2009 |
Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam; ProjecteSD, Barcelona
H
Eric Hattan: Déplacement / version 2010, 2010 | Art Attitude Hervé Bize, Nancy
Hanspeter Hofmann: Mit Fahnen und Trompeten, 2010 | Stampa, Basel
Thomas Houseago: Giant Giant, 2010 | Xavier Hufkens, Bruxelles
K
Alicja Kwade: Nissan (Parallelwelt 1+2), 2009 | Johann König, Berlin
N
Ernesto Neto: Untitled, 2010 | Tanya Bonakdar Gallery,
New York; Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo
P
Bettina Pousttchi: Basel Time, 2010 | Buchmann Galerie, Berlin
R
Ugo Rondinone: Big Mind Sky, 2007 | Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich
T
Alberto Tadiello: LK100A, 2010 | T293, Napoli
Oscar Tuazon: Dad, 2010 | Balice Hertling, Paris;
Standard (Oslo), Oslo
W
Lawrence Weiner: Cat. # 1006, 2009/2010 |
Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
Z
Heimo Zobernig: Black Cube, 2010 | Galería Juana de Aizpuru; Madrid, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Nicolas Krupp, Basel; Frankfurt; Simon Lee Gallery, London; Galerie Christian Nagel; Köln; Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
Ai Weiwei
Field is an orthogonal scaffolding, constructed of standardized pipe elements and connections made of high-grade porcelain bearing the classic blue-and-white floral patterns of the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Seemingly uniform in appearance, each item is the result of careful experimentation with a traditional method, mimicking the regularity and efficiency of modern production techniques.
Although derived from industrial parts such as scaffolding or drainage pipes – common signs of urban and social transformation processes – the structure’s shape has no purpose, the proportion of the arrangement is neutral and the dimensions bear no relation to a hidden reference.
Liberated from the forces that are imposed by necessity, the methodical partition of space becomes a ceremonial exercise that establishes a consciousness for the immediacy of tradition and modernity that is characteristic of the artist’s living environment.
Micol Assaël
Mindfall (2007) is a new version of a work Assaël presented in 2004 at Manifesta 5. The container on view is actually a factory's former office and electrical distribution center, in which twenty-one discarded motors have been installed. The office's windows are extremely fogged and block the spectator's view. The engines turn on and off intermittently, but so that several are activated at once. Working at a very low energy level, their reduced power causes them to overstrain. Between clangs and groans they sluggishly perform a pointless labor, overheating and filling up the space with smoke and the pungent smell of gasoline. In turn, the irregular frequencies of the motors produce vibrations that create a harmony of noises and materialization of sound which reverberates through the body, especially when one enters the container.
Dora García
Dora García's performance Insulting the Audience: Adaptation was first presented at the last Biennale de Lyon (2009). The text is based on one of the milestones of theater in the 1960s, Peter Handke's Publikumsbeschimpfung (1966). It's shorter, the tone and language are slightly different, and Garcia has adapted it to a contemporary art audience and situation.
This new performance – a logical follow-up of her Brechtian sui-generis adaptation of The Beggar's Opera (SkulpturProjekte, Münster, 2007) – calls into question the conventional relationship between author and audience, a reaction against the smug 'satisfied client' status of the current contemporary art spectator.
Eric Hattan
A streetlamp – which seems to have been yanked out of the ground with its concrete roots intact – leans against an existing lamppost on the Messeplatz. What is normally considered a fixed public utility object becomes an absurd element, a new benchmark measuring open-mindedness.
The nomadic piece is reminiscent of André Cadere's wooden staffs – it is less about sculpture per se than its situation. In spite of its monumental size, Déplacement can also be considered a performative sculpture, a mobile work creating a disturbance in a social system that is all-too-well organized.
Hanspeter Hofmann
Coming from the field of natural sciences, Hanspeter Hofmann is interested in research practices and processes in the arts. Since 1990, he has been systematically researching the epistemological foundations of painting. He visualizes this research not only through exhibitions and publications, but also with performances.
At Art 41 Basel, Hanspeter Hofmann will premiere a performance resulting from his most recent artistic research. A group of people and musicians will stand in formation, wearing uniforms and waving flags designed by the artist. The flag, which has already appeared at other occasions, shows a revised crest of the Hofmann Family.
Like previous works, Mit Fahnen und Trompeten (With Banners and Trumpets) deals with the constantly increasing competition in the art world and with the growing influence of the entertainment industry on art.
Concept, production, and design: Hanspeter Hofmann
Music composed by Hermann Bühler exclusively for this performance
Thomas Houseago
Thomas Houseago is a sculptor pur sang, who prefers traditional processes like cutting, mold making, and casting. His figures and objects refer to historical and contemporary approaches to sculpture: the sculptures are built of dissonance, as if they were errors of form. They show multiple and unexpected positions, which the artist has employed as a reflection on the material, the process of making, and the figure. A contemporary vision of sculpture, these statues not only depict themselves, but at the same time, define and redefine the characteristics of their medium.
Alicja Kwade
With her installation Nissan (Parallelwelt 1 + 2) Alicja Kwade delves into the parallel worlds of perception. One vehicle mirrors the other. Not only is the position of the steering wheel mirrored, but also the dent in the fender. Even random everyday items scattered inside the vehicle find correspondence. The testimony of an accident is doubled in a mirror-image made reality.
Ernesto Neto
Since the mid-1990s, Ernesto Neto has developed among the most widely exhibited and influential bodies of work in contemporary sculpture and installation. Creating complex pieces comprised of organic forms and materials, his works emphasize balance, equilibrium, and sensuality, and draw influence not only from the modernist abstraction of Calder and Brancusi, but equally, from the conceptual, social, and per formative installations of his Brazilian predecessors, Lygia Clarke and Hélio Oiticica.
Bettina Pousttchi
German-Iranian artist Bettina Pousttchi has recently gained attention for her critically acclaimed Echo, a 2,000 square meter public photo installation on the facade of Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, which transformed the temporary art institution into 'a phantom Palast der Republik' (Markus Miessen). Her new work, Basel Time, on the facade of Messe Basel's Hall 1 building visually echoes the famous public clock on Hall 2, located above the main-entrance of the fair. As in a déjà-vu, Pousttchi doubles this famous clock in her digitally altered photograph to trigger questions about public memory, the historical role of clocks on official buildings, and the temporal aspects of architecture. Although still generally considered to be expressions of timelessness, architecture and urban structures have become markers of the temporary.
Pertinent to the work, which addresses the role of what Pousttchi calls 'collective image memory,' is the fact that Hall 1 will soon be demolished to make way for a new building by Herzog & de Meuron.
'The blurring in my photo works opens up a space of possibility of the imaginary. In this visual uncertainty lies the question of what reality is, if and how it is depicted, and how we perceive it.' (Bettina Pousttchi)
Ugo Rondinone
Straddling a familiarly anonymous steel-and-glass building, Big Mind Sky embodies Rondinone's wry take on art in public spaces. These rainbow-striped neon sculptures are mounted either on the walls of buildings, on rooftops or in the street, glowing in otherwise drab urban environments like actual advertisements of the mysterious kind. The obvious commercial promotion of the ‘sign’ is lacking – nothing indicates what product or service it represents. Rondinone's arched rainbow presents the perfect camouflage, blending in seamlessly with the scene, yet it seems to lack sponsorship – and it is unclear whether the aim is altruistic or opportunistic.
Alberto Tadiello
When experiencing Alberto Tadiello's LK100A, one is immediately reminded of the modern sirens used on emergency cars. The sculpture is a spectacular structure conceived to represent both an alarm and an old device. A compressed, silent organism, the piece acts like a prehistoric body caught up in the loop of its own circuit. LK100A is a blast of air, a sharp gasp of breath. It's the loaded weapon that releases a powerful and intimidating sound. Indeed, the air of LK100A is conducted through tubes that end in two tunnels which amplify the sound by additional murmurs. The rumbling continues until the air tanks are exhausted, diminishing slowly. The work becomes a metaphor of the ever-present tension affecting people living in cities, who are constantly exposed to the harrying noise of public space.
Oscar Tuazon
For Art Public, American artist Oscar Tuazon presents a large sculpture that references his customary practice of utilizing basic elements of construction and architecture. For Tuazon, the starting point for any large work is a site-specific construction that can then evolve and change into the final work; as for the materials, Tuazon uses pine construction beams, held together by steel struts and steel angles.
'Get up on it, get on it, get up and stand on it. Get a man under it, have a hand with it. Give a hand to it, get a hand through it and do it. Get a man on it. Get a man in it. Push a man into it and get two hands on it. Get an eye on it, keep a hand on it. Drop a beam on it, drop a beam over it and hold it and ram it, drop down on it and clamp it. Keep a man on it, keep over it, stand a man over it and plant it. I had a hand in it. From where I stand I put my hand into it, I stand and pass a hand through it. Fill it and screw it and do it with a hand on it.' (Oscar Tuazon)
Lawrence Weiner
1. THE ARTIST MAY CONSTRUCT THE WORK
2. THE WORK MAY BE FABRICATED
3. THE WORK NEED NOT BE BUILT
EACH BEING EQUAL AND CONSISTENT WITH THE INTENT OF THE ARTIST
THE DECISION AS TO CONDITION RESTS WITH
THE RECEIVER UPON THE OCCASION OF RECEIVERSHIP
Heimo Zobernig
Viewing the inflatable object from outside it looks like a big black shiny cube. The interior contains a labyrinth, which appears to be a gloomy grotto, a thunderstorm soaked hopping-castle like construction (a mixture of a minimal and Barbara Hepworth sculpture or a gothic Batman cave) for grown-ups. In search of themes for a collection of fetish images, since years a frustratingly delayed book project with publisher Three Star Books, the artist made many images, which could be details or cutouts of the planned cave. Martin Oberascher made the model for the project from a specific view, which Zobernig’s wife selected from the whole set of images. The digital design is of course a crude abstraction and the construction problems of this complex form seems to put the production into question. The ideal surrounding for the presentation is probably a beautiful and magical rain forest (also a image detail for the fetish project) or the brutal jungle of the art market, the Art Basel Messeplatz for example.