BOOK:14 Rooms,Hatje Cantz Publications

The catalogue “14 Rooms” by Hatje Cantz Publications, in 160 pages and 65 illustrations presents the homonymous exhibition timed to coincide with Art Basel  at Messe Basel (13-24/4/14). Klaus Biesenbach and Hans Ulrich Obrist invited 14 artists to each activate a room and explore the relationship between space, time, and physicality with an artwork whose “material” is the human being. Giving visitors an insight into a more performative and interactive practice, the exhibition allowed visitors to encounter a new situation within each of the fourteen rooms and engage in a diverse series of immersive and intimate experiences. The exhibition featured the works within an architectural environment conceived by Herzog & de Meuron.  The artists on presentation were: Artists featured: Marina Abramovic, Allora & Calzadilla, Ed Atkins, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Damien Hirst, Joan Jonas, Laura Lima, Bruce Nauman, Otobong Nkanga, Roman Ondák, Yoko Ono, Tino Sehgal, Santiago Sierra and Xu Zhen. Two additional works served as an epilogue (Jordan Wolfson, and an archival documentation (John Baldessari), challenging the very notions of live art and the human experience as set out in 14 Rooms. Originally commissioned as “11 Rooms” by Manchester International Festival, the International Arts Festival Ruhrtriennale 2012–14 and Manchester Art Gallery, the project was shown as “11 Rooms” at Manchester International Festival in July 2011, as “12 Rooms” at the International Arts Festival Ruhrtriennale 2012-14 and as “13 Rooms” by Kaldor Public Art Projects at Pier 2/3 in Sydney’s Walsh Bay in April 2013. For each edition, the artists list partially changed.-Dimitris Lempesis