Supersized art takes over Art Basel
Art Basel, an international art fair showcasing modern and contemporary works, currently brings together 285 galleries from 34 countries. For the 45th time the city of Basel transformed into a temporary museum.
No down-to-earth art
At the opening day of Art Basel, the small Swiss city is overrun by the fancy art scene. And it's more catwalk than museum, a gathering of the rich and famous from around the world. The show runs until June 22 and one installation that's showcased is by Wiebke Siem. But is her lamp (above) hanging or taking off? In Siem's art, household items frequently emerge in the most absurd arrangements.
Super-size it!
Giuseppe Penone's sculpture is 46 meters (150 feet) long and therefore perfectly fits the concept of "Art Unlimited." This part of the Art Basel installation presents artworks going beyond all formats: so-called XXL installations. For "Matrice di linfa," Penone cut a log in half, hollowed it out and now presents it like an open book.
Speaking of trees
British sculptor and land artist David Nash works with wood as well. He used the bark of a Portuguese cork oak for the cone pictured above. The choice of material also reflects Nash's attitude towards nature, the future of which he sees as endangered.
Turn on the light
In the 1960s, a group of artists in Los Angeles started experimenting with light and the perception of space. Doug Wheeler was one of them and he started working with neon lights and acrylic. In the "Art Unlimited" section where XXL artworks are presented, one of Wheeler's art works - an illuminated square in a dark room (pictured above) - can be seen.
As time passes by
"Children of the world," that's how conceptual artist Hanne Darboven calls her gigantic experiment. Darboven collected dolls (pictured above), pop-up books and children's furniture and combined them with endless rows of numbers, notes and photos. At Art Basel her work is fully exhibited for the first time. And it is offered for sale for a mere four million euros ($ 5.5 million).
Sculpture as a street
Without Carl André, minimalism would be unthinkable. The US-American is regarded as one of the founding fathers of minimalism. Since 1967 he has created floor sculptures made of steel sheets. He designed "Steel Peneplain" (1982) for Documenta 7 in Kassel: 300 steel sheets form a rectangle in the park behind the palace. Now it is up for sale for five million US dollars (3.7 million euros).
It is all about networking
Tomas Saraceno creates utopian spaces. Born in Argentina, the artist and architect builds floating elements that are reminiscent of architectural designs of the 1920s. Saraceno's constructions are inspired by nature, such as a spider's web. Together with scientists, he has been studying the social life of spiders and their way of weaving nets for a while now.
The red thread
In Rodney McMillian's one-room chapel everything is red: walls, benches, even the cross. The hand-sawn wooden installation "From Asterisks In Dockery" confronts visitors with a church of a different kind. The title refers to a plantation in Mississippi, USA, where blues music was born. McMillian, however, turned it into a scary scene.
Blending in - African style
Pascale Marthine Tayou likes to confound. The 45-year-old is an artist from Cameroon who pretends to be a woman. And he likewise mixes the objects he has collected for "Tayouwood." Some are from Cameroon and others were constructed in his current hometown of Gent in Belgium. The result is a mishmash that is reminiscent of a market in Africa.
Careful, a devil is hiding in the details
At first sight, Sterling Ruby's universe seems to be all soft and cute. But upon closer inspection, the snakes and puppets made of foam and fabric turn out to be real horror figures. A mouth with vampire teeth swallows a cushion with a stars-and-stripes cover. Obese animals are hanging from the ceiling like dead bodies. Ruby comes up with new "cute" sculptures like these for every exhibition.