Amidst pouring rain, carefully walking on the cobblestones of the Messeplatz in Basel, Switzerland, I explored Parcours at Art Basel. The exhibits in buildings leading up to and surrounding the Messeplatz were concerned with environmental and political issues but did not have the impact of the similarly concerned exhibits I recently saw at the Venice Biennale 2019. Rather, they slowly caused me to think about the concerns presented. The best of them, Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s “The Recovered Manifesto of Wissam (inaudible),” a 2017 arrangement of artificial orange trees, mini-cassettes, speakers painted to look like stones, printed sheets and 3-channel audio, explored the intersection of sound and politics. The accompanying literature pointed out that old cassette tapes are wrapped around fruit trees to keep birds and insects from eating the fruit. One day, Abu Hamdan discovered a … [Read more...] about ART BASEL 2019: FIRST DAY AT PARCOURS
Parcours
Parcours at Art Basel 2018. The good and the bad.
Last year, the Parcours sector at Art Basel was so good I did not think it could be topped, and I was right. Perhaps overconfidence, or the fact that the really good projects were done last year emerged, but this year’s Parcours just did not measure up to the quality of the projects from the last two years. The highlights of the sector were video and sculpture, with the best Julian Charriere’s film, An Invitation to Disappear (2018), with techno beats, backgrounding strobe sequences, and a visual grid of a plantation that recalls the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia 200 years ago. The similarities between environmental disaster and party lights and sounds creates an edginess in the piece. With Cate Blanchett featured in thirteen roles, Manifesto, a film by Jullian Rosefeldt (2017) presents the philosophies of artist manifestos including Fluxus, Dada, and surrealism acted in … [Read more...] about Parcours at Art Basel 2018. The good and the bad.
ARTSCOPE’S GUIDE TO BASEL ART FAIRS 2017
by Nancy Nesvet In the wake of nations attempting to close their borders, the Basel Art Fairs have expanded the world of art and art’s very definition to become the most inclusive ever in art’s history. Including not only ideas but the process by which those ideas are expressed, these shows amaze in the variety of sensual experience, including sound, vision, physical feeling, taste (and I don’t mean the food kind) and more. Art Basel, Basel’s oldest and best Art Fair, includes eight sectors; Unlimited, shows 76 projects, unlimited in size and scale including interventions, installations and other non-scaled pieces. Parcours, from the French meaning "journeys", offsite at the Cathedral Square and throughout the old city of Basel, offers current work of contemporary living artists including installations, guided journeys, interventions and repurposed sculpture. The Film Sector offers … [Read more...] about ARTSCOPE’S GUIDE TO BASEL ART FAIRS 2017