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BIG PROMISES FROM ARTBASEL

The next ArtBasel fair promises to be more spectacular than previous editions following the announcement of the launching of a new platform called «Art Unlimited» designed to house monumental works.

This event, organised in a 12 000 square-metre new exhibition hall created by Swiss architect and art collector Theo Hotz, is considered as a great opportunity to show large size canvasses, video installations, multimedia works and performances.

Some 70 projects out of some 150 have been selected by the organising committee and are to be presented by two curators, Martin Schwander and Simon Lamunière. In addition, ArtBasel provides a rare chance to mix various works instead of showing them in specific areas.

Architectural, sculpture and video works are thus combined in a project by Lori Hersberger, one of the most impressive for «Art Unlimited», while Jorg Wagner is showing a copy of the house he covered in Cologne with transparent films, lit and assembled in a room of the fair.

Beside works expressing our daily preoccupations are shown minimalist pieces by Dan Flavin, Sol Lewitt and Donald Judd as well as Louise Bourgeois' latest creation made with dolls, mirrors and cages. Meanwhile, as he did during the Venice Biennale, Pipilotti Rist is back with his soap bubbles filled with fumes launched into the air.

This year ArtBasel has offered advantageous conditions to artists and galleries with new high walls and equipments as well as lower exhibition tariffs (5 000 Swiss francs for any project). ArtBasel with UBS, the sponsor of this event, demonstrates its determination to help galleries and artists overcome financial difficulties that are likely to prevent unusual projects from being carried out. ArtBasel's Art Statements constitute more than ever an opening on young art.

This event owes its success to some remarkable sales recorded in past editions while its advertising impact is probably the most important in the world nowadays. Egyptian artist Ghada Amer, who exhibited her pornographic tapestries in 1998 in Basel, has now reached a stronger status in the Whitney Biennial in New York. Mariko Mori, Vanessa Beecroft, William Kentridge and many other artists also came to Basel before earning international recognition. In addition the “Bâloise” Insurance company has been allocating important funds for the promotion of Art Statements and is offering $ 30,000 in awards for the purchase of several works that will be offered to several museums.

In a recent past, the jury of Art Basel tended to distinguish artists who were about to reach international recognition. It now pushes further in defending lesser known artists, notably four Scandinavians, Yoshihiro Suda from japan, Navin Rawanchaikul from Thailand or Zhu Tiehai from China. The latter is among the first from his country to be selected among exhibitors in Basel as well as the Shangart gallery, which represents him.

A special impetus has been given in favour of video installations with a projection of mobile chromatic fields by Jeremy Blake. Meanwhile Rachel Feinstein from the U.S is showing sculptures mixing trash and academism and Katerina Vincourova from Prague exhibits monumental soft sculptures.

Video creation is a central point of Art Unlimited notably with installations by Bill Viola and Gary Hill while Rodney Graham is creating some kind of Surrealist atmosphere in filming from a helicopter the edge of a wood at dawn producing images which are as much eerie as those of an eclipse as seen by Tacita Dean or of the representation of a man trying in vain to escape from a pit by Job Koelewijn.

Video sequences are also used by Astronaut Mik, Fiona Tan or Cai Guo-Quiang and Chen Zen, both from China, as well as by Soo La-Kim from Korea and Kendell Geers, a South African artist much concerned with feminine shouts.

Francis Alys, whose works question us about our social identity, has filmed during 24 hours men regrouping before a flag while Andrea Zittel's morphological forms recording and modulating back the voices of visitors make us feel the anguish of losing our identity. Anthony Gormley shows the evolution of a figure among scores of metallic elements while a skin-less figure placed in a window case by John Isaac and combined with films showing beaches seems far away from suggesting dreamy holidays. ArtBasel is surely an ideal platform for the promotion of young artists and even galleries, which now total 260 against 160 during the previous edition.

It is also the only fair in the world that offers an opportunity to test the works of newcomers confronted to those of established artists like Matisse, Van Dongen, Picasso or Kandinsky.

Many European dealers and galleries are offering some great selections such as Wolfgang Wittrock from Dusseldorf who has limited himself to showing works by Max Beckmann, Malborough from Zurich, which is only presenting those by Oscar Kokoschka or Waddington from London, which gives a special insight on the work of Ben Nicholson. Hans Mayer from Dusseldorf has come with a selection of paintings by Kippenberger while Anthony d'Offay from London is offering an early work by Gerhard Richter. The star of the show is certainly Andy Warhol with an exhibition of late works by the Gagosian gallery and several others shown by Mitchell-Innes & Nash alongside another painting co-produced with Jean-Michel Basquiat, «Win $ 1,000,000», exhibited by Bruno Bischofberger from Zurich.

Photographs are massively shown in Basel, notably landscapes by Constance Ruhm, themes on personal identity by Vibeke Tandberg, urban architecture by Sean Snyder, video shots by Montserrat Soto and Heike Barnowsky or verbal creations by Pietro Sanguinetti while Bob and Roberta Smith, two British artists who are to distribute postal cards on which visitors are invited to write a few lines about the new Millenium. Many classic photographs are also exhibited in Basel, notably some shots by William Henry Fox Talbot, Gustave Le Gray or Charles Nègre.

It is however in the field of sculpture that artists are best prone to mixing several media. Simon Periton, whose works are shown by the Sadie Coles gallery from London explores meeting points between pop art and artistic creation, Mathieu Merciers' structures evoke pieces of furniture balancing between craftsmanship and industrial production, Francis Cape is exhibiting frescoes and window cases in wood, Alexandra Ranner reproduces objects after photographs while Gregor Zivic shows photographs of his own home installations .

Julie Becker has created a golden field aimed at stirring feelings and memories while Claudia and Julia Müller are showing frescoes suggesting the limits between individual and collective fantasies.

There are also some works exhaling sociological meanings, notably those by Ola Pehrson who feeds a stock exchange investment program through the electro-vegetal impulses of a yucca tree while Sam Durant has erected a monument celebrating rock n'roll in Jacksonville, Florida.

It is certainly in the field of paintings that ArtBasel proves to be one of the greatest fairs as it offers an incredible selection of masterpieces, notably those shown by Achim Möller Fine Arts from New York with fantastic pieces by Lyonel Feininger and by Marcel Duchamp whose «Pharmacy» of 1914 is the only work that remains to be acquired by a major museum.