ART CITIES:Basel-Eine Karte -35/65+
An annual group exhibition is conceived in the context of the Regionale, a cross-border cooperation of 18 institutions in France, Germany, and Switzerland, with a focus on contemporary production by artists local to the three-country region around Basel. Since its inception 20 years ago, Regionale is uniting three countries, their histories and traditions.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kunsthalle Basel Archive
To what extent does a place play a role in artistic creation? Correspondingly, does age, beyond the bio- graphical, play a role in artistic creation? For the exhibition “Eine Karte -35/65+” in the context of the Regionale 20, and based on this question, works by artists of a specific age-range were selected: those under 35 and those over 65. The exhibition thus becomes an inventory that controversially relies on demographics and biographies to interrupt the familiar continuum that typically guides exhibition which often either focuses on a single generation or several related generations. Through this roundup, the exhibition brings together 21 artistic positions from various locales and two age groups that newly map the significance of place and age. As a result, new narratives emerge and visitors are invited to develop their own stories and attendant maps. This leads to a series of experimental setups that do not lay claim to any coherence, but allow for contradictions, are perhaps even provocative, or may seem unorthodox and incorrect, as well as arbitrary and surprising. This cartography is one of heterogeneity that is difficult to predict and presage. This curatorial concept also provides space for self-reflection on how one, as a curator, re-acts to such diverse works of art. As the Curator of the exhibition, Peter Pakesch says “Having been a co-initiator of the Regionale twenty years ago and having acted as Kunsthalle Basel’s director from 1996 to 2002, this exhibition for me also represents an autobiographical exercise that is strongly linked to my own artistic and curatorial experiences. These latter ex- periences transformed with every change in the field of work—and they are, ultimately, just as permeated by said heterogeneity, generated by unexpected continua”. At first glance, in the works of the exhibition “Eine Karte -35/65+”, appears to be strong similarities between the works of the two groups. On closer examination it becomes clear, however, that the various strategies must be considered in a more differentiated manner. On the one hand, the working methods of the older generation seem to be still firmly anchored in modernism, and on the other hand, these protagonists hail from a field of practice in which a critique of modernism has been pursued since the 1980s. The younger generation’s practice seems to decidedly set itself apart from this approach. Mobility is different today and subject to different conditions, both in terms of personal mobility and in terms of art. Multifarious themes and varied forms of expressions emerge, and the classical dichotomies of modern- ism seem to have been overcome. While their historical charge is not ignored, materials and the way they are used have been liberated from any dogmas. Subject matters also have changed, after all, the world is a different place today than what it once was.
Participating Artists: Annette Barcelo, Selina Baumann, Camille Brès, Peter Brunner-Brugg, Jorinde Fischer, Pierre-Charles Flipo, Gerome Johannes Gadient, Hannah Gahlert, Vincent Gallais, Danae Hoffmann, Géraldine Honauer, Rebecca Kunz, Marie-Louise Leus, Catrin Lüthi K, Marie Matusz, Guido Nussbaum, Mirjam Plattner, Lisa Schittulli, Jürg Stäuble, Werner von Mutzenbecher, and Alfred Wirz.
Info: Curator: Peter Pakesch, Kunsthalle Basel, Steinenberg 7, Basel, Duration: 29/11/19-19-1/20, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri 11:00-18:00, Thu 11:00-20:30, Sat-Sun 11:00-17:00, www.kunsthallebasel.ch
