June 16–19, 2016
Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme
Statements, Hall 2.1, Booth N2
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Unlimited
Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme premiere at Art Basel the first works in a new body of research entitled And Yet My Mask is Powerful. The multimedia project tackles the idea of returns to sites of wreckage. For a young generation of Palestinians, these are the very sites from which to conjure a yet-to-be realised chapter in history. A fuller version of And Yet My Mask is Powerful will be presented in the artists’ first major solo show at Carroll / Fletcher in September 2016.
Best-known for their critically-acclaimed series “The Incidental Insurgents” (2012–15), Abbas and Abou-Rahme (both b. 1983) probe a contemporary landscape marked by seemingly perpetual crisis and an endless “present,” one that is increasingly shaped by a politics of desire and disaster. Their work searches for ways in which an altogether different imaginary can emerge. The artists’ approach has been one of sampling materials (both existing and self-authored), recasting them into altogether new “scripts.” The result is a practice that investigates the visceral and material possibilities of sound, image, text and geography, taking on the form of multimedia installations and live sound/image performances.
Related events
Thursday, June 16, 3–4pm, Salon
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahmein conversation with Marcella Lista
Hall 1 auditorium, Messe Basel
Thursday, June 16, 10:30pm, Film
The lncidental lnsurgents, Part 2: Unforgiving Years (2014)
Part of the “Migrating Birds” film program curated by Maxa Zoller
Stadtkino Basel, Klostergasse 5 4051 Basel
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Carroll / Fletcher—together with bitforms, Max Estrella, and Art Bärtschi & Cie—presents Zoom Pavilion (2015), a monumental interactive installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (b. 1967). Zoom Pavilion consists of an immersive projection across three walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the public. The piece uses facial recognition algorithms to detect the presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within the exhibition space. Independent robotic cameras zoom in to amplify the images of the public with up to 35x magnification: the zooming sequences are disorienting as they change the entire image “landscape” from easily recognizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. Zoom Pavilion is at once an experimental platform for self-representation and a giant microscope to connect the public to each other and track their assembly.
Recently premiered at the MUAC Museum in Mexico City, Zoom Pavilion marks the first collaboration between artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko. These artists’ practices often involve the transformation of an existing built environment using projection technologies to “augment” the site with alternative histories, connections or public relationships. The term “projection mapping” is now often used to describe techniques that Wodiczko started deploying over 30 years ago. Meanwhile, Lozano-Hemmer’s contribution to the field in the past 20 years has been to develop ways to make mapped projections interactive with the general public. This piece emphasizes the temporary construction of connective space by harnessing predatory technologies of detection and control.
Museum highlight
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Preabsence
June 8–August 28
House of Electronic Arts, Basel (HeK)
Freilager-Platz 9, 4142 Münchenstein, Basel
The first solo exhibition by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in Switzerland featuring ten iconic pieces, including biometric portraiture and data-driven installations.
Wednesday, June 15, 3–6pm, HeK
Exhibition tour with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Carroll / Fletcher
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Karmelo Bermejo, James Clar, Constant Dullaart, Michael Joaquin Grey, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Mishka Henner, Justin Hibbs, Christine Sun Kim, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Eva and Franco Mattes, Manfred Mohr, Evan Roth, Thomson & Craighead, UBERMORGEN, Eulalia Valldosera, Richard T. Walker, John Wood and Paul Harrison
For more information, please contact the gallery by phone: T +44 (0) 20 7323 6111 or by email: info [at] carrollfletcher.com.