MIRAGES LIII

June 2019, is full of art evens, since the 58th Venice Biennial titled “May You Live In Interesting Times” continues, but in the spotlight is Basel that hosts the most important and remarkable Art Fairs for Contemporary Art.

At one hand is the Art Basel in which participate older and most recognized galleries, but the most important art-event in our opinion is LISTE Art Fair, because for 24 years its focus is to introduce new galleries that represent young, emerging artists to an established art scene. The intentionally low number of galleries and the strict selection policy of the jury (composed of museum professionals) contribute to a feeling of vitality and dynamism at the Fair.

LISTE Art Fair faced a change in generations, Joanna Kamm succeeded longtime director Peter Bläuer, who co-founded the fair in Basel and stepped down after 23 years. Joanna Kamm said in her Interview that you will read in our magazine in a few days “The most important thing for me is to use all the channels at my disposal to point out the social significance of young art”.

For our magazine is a great honor to be Online Media Partners on a Regular basis with LISTE Art Fair.

At LISTE Art Fair 2019 participate 77 young and emerging galleries from 33 countries. A new initiative of LISTE is the Joinery. On the one hand it is a place where galleries can extend their presentations by showing videos and performances that exceed the limitations of their stands, while on the other hand it is a meeting point and think tank that considers the latest topics in contemporary art discourse.

The Helvetia Art Prize is awarded to a graduate of a Swiss college or university majoring visual and media art. The 16th Helvetia Art Prize, which includes a monetary award of CHF 15,000 and a solo exhibition at the Liste Art Fair, goes to Kaspar Ludwig, who holds a Master’s degree in fine arts from the Academy of Art and Design in Basel.

Liste Art Fair’s Special Guests for 2019 are: HeK (House of Electronic Arts Basel) that will present an enigmatic video tutorial by French artist Elisabeth Caravella and a series of images by Belgian artist Dries Depoorter. The cinematographic tutorial “Howto” by Elisabeth Caravella, that instructs the viewer on how to create a 3D text with a graphic software program. What appears to be a simple tutorial in the tradition of numerous videos on YouTube and other social platforms slowly evolves into a desktop performance, whose purpose becomes increasingly difficult to decipher. Dries Depoorter in his series “Jaywalking Frames” combines topics such as privacy, artificial intelligence and surveillance. The series consists of a collection of pictures of pedestrians crossing the road at a red light, which were taken by the artist after he hacked unprotected surveillance cameras all over the world.

Kaskadenkondensator Basel will present two projects in the contemporary and social practice of art in Bulgaria and Turkey in collaboration with: artspace DEPO (Istanbul) and AM contemporary (Plovdiv). DEPO’s program primarily focuses on practices which deal with historical and contemporary social issues while AM contemporary focuses on the international exchange of artists from Eastern and western Europe, focus on Bulgaria.

Spike Art Magazine will present the participatory installation “The Day Whose End Will Not Be an Evening” that draws on moments from the history of the magazine that feel especially relevant today and transform them into something new.

Good Month (!)
1/6/19
Efi Michalarou

Photo: Sebastian Jefford, Aggresively indeterminate biscuit, 2018, Polyurethane foam, acrylic, latex, plastic snaps, plaster, bandage, chicken wire, cardboard, Photo: Simon Veres, © Sebastian Jefford, Courtesy the artist and Gianni Manhattan- Vienna