Whitewaller Basel 2018: What to See

Bacon-Giacometti
Fondation Beyeler Riehen
April 29–September 2
From April 29 to September 2, Fondation Beyeler presents a visual conversation between two extraordinary artists, rivals, and friends: Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) and Francis Bacon (1909–1992). For the first time, the commonalities and parallels between these two artists will be drawn together. The exhibition is co-curated by Ulf Küster, curator at Fondation Beyeler; Catherine Grenier, director of the Fondation Giacometti; and Michael Peppiatt, Bacon expert. The show highlights shared interests in the human figure, Old Masters, the representation of space, the depiction of human individuality, and far more. In 100 works, “Bacon – Giacometti” demonstrates how two visionaries challenged the antithesis of figuration and abstraction, shaping the form of modern art itself.

Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger
“Too Early To Panic”
Museum Tinguely Basel Wettstein
June 6–September 23
“Too Early to Panic: Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger” is a uniquely curious look into the artistic vision of Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger. Equal parts magic and slight discomfort, the exhibit unfurls as a labyrinthine cabinet of curiosities. Steiner and Lenzlinger created immersive installations out of materials such as fingernails, seeds, hairy plastic, fat eggs, invasive plants, and fertilizer. “Too Early to Panic” invites visitors to explore a liminal space, somewhere between nature and artificiality.

Raphaela Vogel: Ultranackt
Kunsthalle Basel Altstadt Grossbasel
May 18–August 12
“Raphaela Vogel: Ultranackt” runs from May 18 to August 12, 2018, at Kunsthalle Basel, as Vogel’s first-ever solo exhibition outside of Germany. The German artist, who is known for her explorations of sexuality, technology, and perspective, continues to critically examine these subjects. “Ultranackt” comprises sculptural installations, precariously arranged, activated by audio and video (and often featuring the artist herself). In the exhibition, Vogel proffers a dynamic, sometimes-shocking dystopia, infused with her own perspective.

Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960–Today
Vitra Design Museum Weil am Rhein
March 17– September 9
“Night Fever” combines furniture, graphic design, architectural models, art, film, photography, and fashion to examine the cultural potency of the nightclub. Ranging from 1960s Italian hangouts to Andy Warhol’s preferred Studio 54, nightclubs have offered a nocturnal space teeming with their own distinct graphic and multisensory culture. Vitra Design Museum now offers the first exhibition of its kind—a large-scale exploration of this relationship, the subcultures that surround it, and the parallel universe that the nightclub provides.

Bas Princen
“Image and Architecture”
Vitra Design Museum Weil am Rhein
February 24–August 5
What happens to the spatial and material qualities of architecture when a three-dimensional structure becomes a two-dimensional image? In “Image and Architecture,” Dutch artist Bas Princen (b. 1975) investigates that translation and how the still image has become an intrinsic part of architecture. In order to imbue objects with newfound materiality, Princen has printed large-scale photographs on Japanese rice paper for the exhibit. His work probes the nature of architecture, photography, and image, tracing the relationship across cultures and time from the Italian Renaissance to 1930s New York.

Sam Gilliam, 1967–1973
“The Music of Color”
Kunstmuseum/Neubau Vorstädte
June 9–September 30
“The Music of Color” is Sam Gilliam’s (b. 1933) first solo show in Europe. Despite having been the first African-American artist to be represented at the Venice Biennale (in 1972), the artist remains largely unknown among European audiences. For this exhibition, the Kunstmuseum Basel asked Gilliam to redesign several works in response to the museum’s architecture. The result, like Gilliam’s oeuvre more broadly, engages with painting, sculpture, and architecture, defying traditional disciplinary boundaries. The “Drapes” series, which Gilliam began in 1968, marks a particular highlight. Made up in acrylic paint and raw canvases but unmounted, they flutter amid the space, reinventing themselves with each installation.

Theaster Gates
“Black Madonna”
Kunstmuseum/Gegenwart Vorstädte
June 9–October 21
Spread across the Neubau and Gegenwart venues of the Kunstmuseum, “Black Madonna” examines the political, aesthetic, and metaphorical power of the Black Madonna. Over the course of the 19th century, the black skin of certain Marian imagery—once connoting the venerable age of the artwork—became a marker of race. Theaster Gates explores this heritage, in addition to its social ramifications and his own personal experiences. In a multifaceted approach, Gates confronts this cult through a series of new works created for the exhibition, and an extensive program of life performances.

The End Is Where We Start From
On Tsunamis, Nuclear Explosions and Other Fairy Tales
Balzer Projects Vorstädte
June 6–July 21
From June 6 to July 21, 2018, “The End Is Where We Start From” presents the intersection of art and long-term scientific research regarding nature, time, and human intervention. Curated by Pauline Doutreluingne, the exhibition features work by Marjolijn Dijkman, Brian Duggan, Vera Isler, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Susanna Hertrich, Monika Niwelińska, David Rickard, and Kirsten Stolle that deals with the mysteries of our surroundings—and possible outcomes of our society. Featured works include the Doomsday Clock, images of experiments gone wrong, and hand-stitched maps of nuclear test-sites.

Sergej Vutuc
“Jenseits Von Innen”
Daeppen Gallery Matthäus
June 9– July 14
The Berlin-based artist Sergej Vutuc works in analog photography, sound, and space to observe the (over)development of modern society. He studies a changing landscape, one that is increasingly formed in concrete. Hoping to shift our perception of reality, humanity, nature, and society, Vutuc presents visuals and soundscapes to document and to challenge, under the belief that “scratching on the surface of blurry dream and fantasy as the only existing reality based on self creation.”

Martha Rosler & Hito Steyerl
“War Games”
Kunstmuseum St. Alban-Graben
May 5–December 2
Working at the intersection of politics and mass media, Martha Rosler and Hito Steyerl examine how audiovisual media influences our social reality. For the first time, their works will be put in conversation, through a joint show at Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart. Filling two floors of the museum, the show includes video, photographs, photomontages, banners, objects, and expansive multimedia installations—arranged in collaboration with both artists. Both early and recent works will be featured and will focus on the social, political, economic, and military domination that structures our lives.