Art Basel
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Curated for the fourth consecutive year by Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director of Artspace in Sydney, Encounters will present institutional-scale installations and site-specific projects, with nine new works created specifically for this year’s show. The 2018 edition, which again will be installed along the four boulevards that run through the two exhibition floors of the show, will feature work by Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, Chou Yu-Cheng, Toshikatsu Endo, Ryan Gander, Subodh Gupta, Iván Navarro, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Shinji Ohmaki, Jorge Pardo, Erwin Wurm, Ulla von Brandenburg and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Art Basel, whose Lead Partner is UBS, takes place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from Thursday, March 29 to Saturday, March 31, 2018.
Bringing together 12 artists from 11 countries and territories including Australia, Austria, Chile, Cuba, Germany, India, Japan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom, Alexie Glass-Kantor’s focus for this year’s curation centers around inviting the audience to make contact with objects, artists and ideas. While some artworks will require the viewer’s participation to activate the work, others will reflect or mirror the body of the audience, directly implicating them into each work.
Information on individual presentations:
‘7 Curtains’ (2017), a new site-specific work by Ulla von Brandenburg (b. 1974) will be presented jointly by Pilar Corrias and Meyer Riegger. Interested in theatre and absurdity, von Brandenburg's installation consists of a sequence of seven monumental stage curtains, inviting the audience to perform by stepping into the color field.
Erwin Wurm's (b. 1954) iconic series ‘One Minute Sculptures’ will be jointly showcased by Lehmann Maupin, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac and König Galerie. First performed in 1997, the ongoing series instructs the audience to "make one minute sculptures", questioning and reflecting on sculpture itself and limiting the sculptures' lifetime to 60 seconds.
neugerriemschneider will present ‘Untitled’ (2009, 2017) by Cuban artist Jorge Pardo (b. 1963). Inspired by medieval manuscripts, Pardo has choreographed a series of objects that intersect architecture, sculpture and design, challenging our expectations of these categories.
‘Start. Stop’ (2008) by Subodh Gupta (b. 1964), who has received international attention for his large-scale monuments exploring subjects of Indian life and culture, will be presented by Arario Gallery. The installation consists of a large and slowly moving sushi belt with scores of tiffin boxes and gleaming pots, recalling the fate of the "dabbawallas" who transport tiffin boxes filled with home-cooked lunch on wheelbarrows in a rapidly changing urban environment.
Edouard Malingue Gallery will premiere a new performance by Cho Yu-Cheng (b. 1976) titled ‘Refresh, Sacrifice, New Hygiene, Infection, Clean, Robot, Air, Housekeeping, www.agentbong.com, Cigarette, Dyson, Modern People’ (2017). Blurring the boundaries between public and private spaces, Cho Yu-Cheng explores the concept of hygiene, technology and the distribution of labor through sculpture, performance and recital.
Lisson Gallery will showcase ‘Potent motif of ambition (Dramaturgical framework for structure and stability)’ (2018) by British artist Ryan Gander (b. 1976), which considers technology and mechanics to rethink the body through new anthropomorphic forms.
Exposing invisible forces, Japanese artist Shinji Ohmaki’s (b. 1971) ‘Liminal Air Space-Time’ (2018), presented by Mind Set Art Center, takes a once solid object and dissolves it into kinetic sculpture, creating an illusion of air as form.
‘Left Wing Project (Belok Kiri Jalan Terus)’ (2017-2018), a new large-scale, site-specific installation by the artist duo Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan (b. 1965, b. 1962 respectively) will be presented by Yavuz Gallery. Also activated by air, Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan’s installation is concerned with the mass migration of people and the complex social and political realities of contemporary agrarian societies in Asia.
‘Gäna (self)’ (2018) by Nyapanyapa Yunupingu (b. 1945), one of Australia's most celebrated Aboriginal artists, will be presented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. This sculptural installation comprises powerful and totemic bark paintings and larrakitj poles, which were traditionally used as hollow coffins created to hold the bones of the dead.
Sydney-based Sri Lankan artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran (b. 1988) will create 'Mud Men Volume II' (2017) for this year’s show. Presented by Sullivan+Strumpf, Nithiyendran’s large-scale ceramic works are rough-edged New Age symbols that reference Hindu and Christian imagery and gender fluidity.
Presented by SCAI The Bathhouse, Mona-ha artist Toshikatsu Endo (b. 1950) will display ‘Void – Wooden Boat, Hong Kong’ (2009-2018), an 11-meter-long boat carved out of a single timber soaked in tar. Born to a family of shrine architects, Endo is interested in ritual involving the classical elements fire, water, earth and air.
Paul Kasmin Gallery will debut New York-based Chilean artist Iván Navarro's (b. 1972) ‘Compression’ (2018). The new work transforms the globe of the Earth’s surface into a cube, essentially rendering its surfaces flat, challenging the notion that the globalisation offers a level playing field and that all things are equal.
The Encounters sector is supported by MGM Resorts Art & Culture. More information on the sector is available at artbasel.com/hongkong/encounters.
About Alexie Glass-Kantor
Alexie Glass-Kantor is a curator, author and Executive Director of Artspace, a contemporary art institution in Sydney. Developing curatorial engagement in the Asia-Pacific region throughout her career, Alexie Glass-Kantor has held programming and curatorial roles at organizations including SITE Santa Fe Biennial, New Mexico; Magazzino D’arte Moderna, Rome; National University of Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; 12th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Adelaide; Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne; Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing; and the Melbourne International Arts Festival and MONA/FOMA, Melbourne.
About Art Basel
Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition.
Art Basel’s engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through a number of new initiatives. In 2014, Art Basel launched its Crowdfunding Initiative which has catalyzed much-needed support for outstanding non-commercial art projects worldwide and so far has helped garner pledges in excess of USD 2 million in support of around 70 art projects from around the globe – from Bogota to Ho Chi Minh City, San José and Kabul. For Art Basel Cities, launched in 2016, Art Basel is working with selected partner cities to develop vibrant and content-driven programs specific to the individual city. Connecting them to the global art world through Art Basel's expertise and network, Art Basel Cities supports its partners to develop their unique cultural landscape. For further information, please visit artbasel.com.
Selection Committee in Hong Kong
The Selection Committee for Art Basel's show in Hong Kong is comprised of renowned international gallerists: Massimo De Carlo, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, London and Hong Kong; Emi Eu, STPI, Singapore; Shireen Gandhy, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai; David Maupin, Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; Urs Meile, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne and Beijing; Atsuko Ninagawa, Take Ninagawa, Tokyo; Bo Young Song, Kukje Gallery, Seoul; and Zhang Wei, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou and Beijing. The experts for the Discoveries and Insight sectors are Finola Jones, mother's tankstation limited, Dublin and London; Patrick Lee, One and J. Gallery, Seoul; and Simon Wang, Antenna Space, Shanghai. The expert for Modern art is Mathias Rastorfer, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, St. Moritz and Zug.
Partners
UBS, global Lead Partner of Art Basel, has supported the organization for more than 20 years. As Art Basel’s global network expanded, UBS increased its lead partnership to include all three shows. In addition, UBS has a long and substantial record of engagement in contemporary art: as a holder of one of the world’s most distinguished corporate art collections, as an active partner in global contemporary art projects such as the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, and as a source of information and insights through the UBS Arts Forum and the art news-focused app 'Planet Art' app. Annually, UBS and Art Basel co-publish the 'Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report' by Clare McAndrew. Find more details at ubs.com/art.
Art Basel's Associate Partners, supporting all three shows, are MGM Resorts International – one of the world’s leading entertainment companies with a long-standing commitment to presenting and supporting art in public spaces and Audemars Piguet, whose activities in contemporary art include the Audemars Piguet Art Commission. Art Basel is supported globally by BMW, who has co-developed with Art Basel the BMW Art Journey and Ruinart as the Official Champagne Partner. Lounge Host Partners in Hong Kong are Christian Dior, La Prairie and Swire Properties. The show is also supported by HTC VIVE as the Official VR Partner, Quintessentially as the Official Concierge Partner, The Murray Hong Kong and The Peninsula Hong Kong as the Official Hotel Partners and Swiss International Air Lines as the Official Carrier. Art Basel's global Media Partner is The Financial Times. For further information about partnerships, please visit artbasel.com/partners.
Preview (by invitation only)
Tuesday, March 27, 2018, 2pm to 8pm
Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 1pm to 5pm
Thursday, March 29, 2018, 12noon to 1pm
Friday, March 30, 2018, 12noon to 1pm
Vernissage
Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 5pm to 9pm
Public Days
Thursday, March 29, 2018, 1pm to 9pm
Friday, March 30, 2018, 1pm to 8pm
Saturday, March 31, 2018, 11am to 6pm
Press accreditation:
Online registration for press accreditation is now open. Please visit artbasel.com/accreditation.
Upcoming Art Basel shows
Hong Kong, March 29-31, 2018
Basel, June 14-17, 2018
Miami Beach, December 6-9, 2018
