ART CITIES:Basel-Klaus Littmann

Klaus Littmann grew up in Basel, studied at Düsseldorf Art Academy with Joseph Beuys and established himself as a mediator of contemporary art. He made his name through unique solo and group exhibitions positioned in diverse contexts. After many years working within gallery and museum spaces, he started presenting theme-oriented art exhibitions in the public arena. Underlying each of his complex and unique projects is a dichotic tension highlighting the artist’s preoccupation with everyday culture and the confrontation between contemporary art and urban spaces.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: KBH.G Archive

Klaus Littmann’s project “For Forest – The Unending Attraction of Nature” in Klagenfurt astounded the international art and culture scene in 2019. What’s more, it reflected the heart of the matter of the 21st century. With the same spirit Littmann has embarked on a new project which delves further into this topic. The Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G presents Littmann’s two-part follow-up project, which takes place in Basel. The launch is marked by the temporary walk-in art intervention “Arena for a Tree” on Basel’s Münsterplatz, followed by the exhibition “Tree Connections” dedicated to Littmann’s project and the tree as a versatile topic in art history, from the 19th century until today. What began around 30 years ago as an artistic intellectual game by Klaus Littmann, and was later implemented in the Wörtherseestadion in Klagenfurt in 2019, is carried on in Switzerland with a completely new approach. While in Klagenfurt a football stadium was filled with 299 trees, here a single tree becomes the main actor of the stage. It is the centre of a public arena, in the heart of Basel.  The optically and physically permeable “Arena for a Tree” offers only 50 people at the time the opportunity to admire a unique tree at its centre. “Nature itself is a total work of art – it deserves an homage once in a while” says Klaus Littmann, explaining the intention for his installation around a single tree, which visitors and passers-by can enter every day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The arena, in collaboration with Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure, has a diameter of twelve meters and is shaped like a round basket made of loose mesh that protects the tree – eight meters high, that reaches almost the top of the tree. The irregularity of the outer shape and structure of the individual lamellas that form the “mesh” is based on those of a tree. Together with the surrounding grandstand inside, they depict the annual rings of a tree. As for “For Forest”, the tree was selected by the Swiss landscape architect Enzo Enea. The selection process does not rely entirely on mere beauty and strength, but rather looks at whether it can be integrated into the Basel tree population and whether its species is capable of long-term adaptation to the conditions changed by global warming. Because this tree is many things: a representative for the forest, an ambassador for nature and its preservation and of course also a testimonial for the exhibition cycle. “The arena will leave the Münsterhügel again, the tree should take root in Basel in the long run and will be given to the city as a gift”. says Klaus Littmann.

Klaus Littmann lives and works as an artist, curator and producer in Basel. Littmann studied art at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, under the guidance of Joseph Beuys. Later he made a name for himself as a maker and independent mediator of contemporary art, as well as initiator and organizer of solo and group exhibitions and finally concentrated on the planning and realization of thematic art exhibitions and interventions in public space. At the centre of his research lies the interest in everyday culture as well as the dialogue between contemporary art and historically grown urban spaces. Underlying each of his complex and unique projects is a dichotic tension highlighting the artist’s preoccupation with everyday culture and the confrontation between contemporary art and urban spaces. Klaus Littmann was awarded the Culture Prize of the City of Basel in 2002.

Info: Münsterplatz, Basel, Duration: 27/4-24/5/2021, Days & Hours: Daily 11:00-20:00