The artists in this exhibition illustrate principles of nature, give voices to plants from a wide range of different perspectives and testify to the extraordinary qualities of these creatures inextricably linked with our survival. Curated by Christiane Meyer-Stoll with Annett Höland, co-curator of the project space.
The Federal Office of Culture, Switzerland is pleased to award the Prix Meret Oppenheim 2023 to three outstanding Swiss culture practitioners: art historian Stanislaus von Moos; artist Uriel Orlow; and architecture platform Parity Group.
Award Ceremony Prix Meret Oppenheim Art Basel, Hall 1.1 17h – 19h
Since 2001 by the Federal Office of Culture in collaboration with the Federal Art Commission, the Swiss Grand Prix for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim is awarded on the recommendation of the Commission to artists, architects, curators, researchers, and critics, whose internationally renowned work is of particular relevance and importance to Swiss artistic and architectural practice.
Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
These problematics have framed the different approaches to understanding fragile ecosystems, land use, and the ways in which these environments were perceived historically through poetry and prose. What are the layers of human action deposited upon the environment and its visible manifestations? How has Environmental History shifted since its emergence as a field of inquiry in the XXth century? And what is the current status of reflections, at a moment when the impact of human activity undeniably shapes the realms of the visible and the invisible?
Invited historians, poets, artists, scientists, architects and other cultural practitioners offered their unique insights through a series of talks and debates, putting forward novel hypotheses and ideas. Part of the symposium was dedicated to the work of Atelier LUMA. It was complemented by selected readings about the environment, honoring the work of pioneering artist and author Etel Adnan.
Chaleur humaine, the second Art & Industry Triennial, will unfold over the
second half of 2023 in Dunkirk and throughout the Hauts-de-France region.
This year’s event will explore the issue of energy.
To tackle this far-reaching topic, Triennial initiators and organizers the
Frac Grand Large and the LAAC—collectively Le Pôle Art Contemporain de
Dunkerque—have invited two independent exhibition curators: Anna Colin and
Camille Richert, assisted by Henriette Gillerot. Their curatorial brief focuses on
observing how energy challenges arising since the mid-1970s have impacted art,
design and architecture, and, conversely, how these fields have shaped challenges,
reflections and debates linked to energy, the environment and the planet.
The wide ranging works on display will invite onlookers to discover practices
linked to excess energy consumption; access to natural resources; issues
related to sustainability and environmental responsibility; the transformation
of landscapes and people’s relationships with their visible and perceptible
surroundings; the ongoing tug-of-war between forces and fatigue in the living
world; and the flow of data and energy.
Acts of Gathering brings together a number of artworks that celebrate and interrogate the nature of food culture in a rapidly changing world, inviting us to consider the ceremony and symbolism that shape our connections to food, to each other and to the earth.
Located on the North Sea coast between Delft, The Hague, and Hook of Holland is a region where there are no seasons and the sky glows orange at night. This is the Westland: once an agglomeration of farming villages whose mild climate and clay soils made it home to grapevines and potato fields. The Westland is now the world’s largest continuous area of glasshouses, all 2,300 hectares of them. The grapes and potatoes have given way to high-tech agribusiness and intensive cultivation, mainly of fruit, vegetables, cut flowers, and ornamental plants. The exhibition THE GLASS CITY explores the Westland through the work of eight artists. It provides insights into the relationship between agriculture and technological innovation and transformation, the balance between natural and artificial, economy and ecology, and the future of food production.
Curated by Sabine Rusterholz Petko with works by Brigham Baker, Vanessa Billy, Nicolas Buzzi und Harmony, Ishita Chakraborty, Sam Falls, Dorota Gawęda & Eglė Kulbokaitė, Sarah Hablützel & Marko Mijatovic, Dunja Herzog, Thomas Julier, Hanne Lippard, Lithic Alliance, Martina Lussi, Thi My Lien Nguyen, Uriel Orlow, Reto Pulfer, Miriam Rutherfoord & Joke Schmidt, Raul Walch.
Group exhibition with works by Martyna Czech, Kapwani Kiwanga and Uriel Orlow, curated by Kasia Sobczak.
The exhibition Parliament of Plants II testifies to a new view of plants, which are inextricably linked with our own survival, with works by Polly Apfelbaum, Ursula Biemann, Anna Hilti, Alevtina Kakhidze, Jochen Lempert, Rivane Neuenschwander & Mariana Lacerda, Uriel Orlow, Silke Schatz, Thomas Struth, Athena Vida, Miki Yui, Zheng Bo. Over the past decades, a paradigm shift has been taking place in the sciences regarding our perception of plants, one that is also reflected in the exhibition’s artworks. Parliament of Plants II demonstrates the principle of symbiosis as a societal counter-image to the parasitic handling of nature. New insights regarding the world of plants feature alongside knowledge of Indigenous cultures, questions pertaining to colonial and contemporary history, the handling of resources or our perception of time. The crucial question is: how can we achieve a symbiotic coexistence in which human and non-human beings can learn from each other? The main themes of two ‘raised stands’ are Michel Serres’ Natural Contract and Lynn Margulis’ theory of symbiosis. Co-curated by Christiane Meyer-Stoll with Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, molecular biologist and historian of science.
The exhibition includes two inserts, a project space in the side-light gallery and a wide range of further collaborations and cooperations: Insert I: Politics of Plants
curated by Linda Schädler, head of ETH’s Prints and Drawings Collection, Zurich, with works by Mireille Gros, Matthew Day Jackson, Monica Ursina Jäger, Daniela Keiser, Pascal Schwaighofer, Melanie Smith, Sebastian Utzni. Insert II: Plants_Intelligence. Learning like a Plant, a research project at the Institute Art Gender Nature, Academy of Art and Design FHNW, Basel, with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation with works by Felipe Castelblanco, Julia Mensch, Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits.
A special screening of the multipart video work Wishing Trees, which was commissioned by Manifesta 12 and premiered at Palazzo Butera in Palermo in 2018.
Wishing Trees brings together two trees from Palermo that hold memories of significant events, connecting human histories and nature and listening to their reverberations in the present. The Albero di Falcone and the Cipresso di San Benedetto, enter into dialogue with the late anti-mafia feminist activist Simona Mafai and young men from West Africa who work as cooks in Palermo. The screening is followed by a Q&A and discussion in English between Uriel Orlow and art historian and curator Madeleine Schuppli.
A screening as part of Aesthetics of Resistance: Straub-Huillet and Contemporary Moving-Image Art, a series of screenings taking place at e-flux Screening Room in monthly chapters between December 2022 and March 2023 curated by Lukas Brasiskis. Read more on the series here.