Basel moments
Dear friends,
We all know how eventful and intense Art Basel is in June. Nevertheless, it was such a pleasure to meet with a good number of you on that occasion for a day of outstanding visits and a wonderful lunch altogether.
Starting the day at the Beyeler Foundation
Curator and critic Mouna Mekouar introduced us to the ongoing Vija Celmins exhibition at the Beyeler Foundation. We were able to learn so much more about this incredible woman artist, retracing her eventful life affected by disasters and wars but in constant relation to notions of beauty and intimacy. We then visited the permanent collection presenting an exclusive painting-only selection put in dialogue with Vija Celmins’ works. We were lucky to witness unprecedented connections between artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pablo Picasso, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Wilhelm Sasnal, Wolfgang Tillmans and Andy Warhol.
Ser Serpas at Kunsthalle Basel
Later on, we met with Guillaume Désanges, our President and Lena Katharina Reuter, Head of Exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel, for a tour of Ser Serpa’s largest solo exhibition to date in Switzerland. In her exhibition “of my life” she presented the multiplicity of her aesthetic vocabulary and examined the boundaries between body, time, and the ephemeral images that lie in between. Her practice combined sculpture, painting, and performance art in a most intriguing setting within the spacious skylit galleries of the impressive neoclassical Kunsthalle building. The visit finished with an immersive visit of Dala Nasser’s installation “Xíloma MCCCLXXXVI”.
Annual Luncheon
How marvellous to have 20 lovely people gathered around the same table. we were joined by our Senior Curator Daria de Beauvais but also Louis Norval from the South African Norval Foundation and his party, Langen Foundation curator Nadim Samman, and some of our beloved french patrons of the Palais de Tokyo.
Last stop with Katharina Grosse on the Messeplatz
There was no better way to end this day than with an intimate meeting with artist Katharina Grosse who talked with us about her landmark installation on the Messeplatz, a hard one to miss!
Thank you for all of you who have joined during this extremely busy week at Art Basel.
