2019 exhibition program

Kunsthalle Basel commissions and produces ambitious, thought-provoking art and exhibitions by emerging artists. Established in 1872, the institution is renowned for its nearly 150-year history of engaging with pioneering practices in contemporary art. The exhibitions planned for 2019 expand on this tradition, nearly all including newly commissioned artworks while supporting artists to create some of their most audacious projects to date.

Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel: Mammalian Fantasies
January 18–April 14, 2019
Opening: Thursday, January 17, 7pm

Daniel Dewar (*1976) and Grégory Gicquel (*1975) create sculptural objects that combine traditional craftwork, figurative motifs, and a wildly surreal sensibility. For their first institutional exhibition in Switzerland, the British-French artist duo presents an ensemble of newly commissioned and recently constructed wood pieces in which the fragmented bodies of humans and other mammals appear. Using seemingly anachronistic production techniques, they carve a dislocated human arm or intestinal tract alongside an ox’s head or a giant Flanders rabbit onto wall murals, armoires, or sets of drawers. The results celebrate the slow and the analogue, rendering vague any distinctions between functionality, decoration, and aura.

Generously supported by François Gutzwiller, the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, and the Institut Français, with additional support from the French Embassy in Switzerland and Lichtenstein.

Wong Ping: Golden Shower
January 18–May 5, 2019
Opening: Thursday, January 17, 7pm

An incongruous combination of dry humor, graphically explicit themes, and candy-hued, child-like forms seemingly built from the simple geometries of early video games pervades the digital animations of Wong Ping (*1984). For his first large-scale institutional solo show, the Hong Kong-based artist presents newly commissioned and recent videos, each within a new, specially conceived sculptural installation. They speak of our contemporary urban condition and its pathologies—whether they arrive in the form of alienation, misogyny, or self-loathing—unraveling some of the starkest realities of our own dark age with a touch as mordant as it is humorous.

Produced with the support of the Huayu Group and Huayu Youth Award.

Geumhyung Jeong
May 3–August 11, 2019
Opening: Thursday, May 2, 7pm

At once tender and unsettling, the performances of Geumhyung Jeong (*1980) are studies in the erotics of technical animism. For her first solo exhibition in Switzerland, the South Korean artist and choreographer creates a new performance accompanied by a related film and sculptures that use DIY toy technologies, amateur robotics, and programmed movements to undermine the boundaries between desire and control, human and machine, animate and inanimate.

Generously supported by the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte as well as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea, Korea Arts Management Service, Fund for Korean Art Abroad, and SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation, with the kind involvement of Laurence Geoffrey’s, Ltd.

Dora Budor
May 24–August 11, 2019
Opening: Thursday, May 23, 7pm

For her first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, Dora Budor (*1984) investigates the architectural history of Kunsthalle Basel and its surroundings in order to use sound, dust, and environmental data from dissonant temporalities to create an evolving “score” for her exhibition. Inspired in equal measure by science fiction, cinematic staging, and the overwhelming hybridization of nature with the human-made, the Croatian-born artist turns the exhibition into a reactive biotope. The result is a disquieting exhibition experience, with artworks whose unfolding forms are modulated by invisible forces.

Generously supported by Balkan Projects and Andrea Grisard & Alex Grossenbacher, with additional support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.

Kaari Upson: Go Back the Way You Came
August 30–November 10, 2019
Opening: Thursday, August 29, 7pm

For her first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, Kaari Upson (*1972) presents a new body of wood and latex sculptures that continue her ongoing exploration of both the figure of the mother and the uncanny double. The US-American artist casts, cuts down, or replicates natural and architectural elements that she grew up with, fusing home and mother, body and object, desire and trauma. The gripping result interrogates family, consumer culture, and “Americanness,” all while literally eviscerating parts of her childhood environment to do so.

Alex Baczynski-Jenkins
September/October 2019

The Polish-British artist and choreographer Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (*1987) deploys micro-gestures, dance, and minimal sets to trace desire, alienation, and collectivity. His practice is specifically concerned with the mediation and politics of queer desire, staging affect and intimacy through live performance. At Kunsthalle Basel, Baczynski-Jenkins’s performances will be experienced during special opening hours for the duration of the exhibition. Exact dates and performance times to be announced at kunsthallebasel.ch.

Generously supported by Peter Handschin. Presented in collaboration with Culturescapes.

Joanna Piotrowska
October 25, 2019–January 5, 2020
Opening: Thursday, October 24, 7pm

The black-and-white photographs and films by Joanna Piotrowska (*1985) capture the everyday drama of human relations. The Polish artist creates inexplicably strange and touching images, whose recording of gestures of care, self-protection, or control are as deftly composed as they are psychologically charged. For her first institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland, the artist presents a new series of photographs, alongside recent photographs and films.

Generously supported by Martin Hatebur, with production support from the Lewis Baltz Research Fund. Presented in collaboration with Culturescapes.

Regionale 20
November 23, 2019–January 19, 2020
Opening: Saturday, November 23

For the 20th edition of Regionale, Kunsthalle Basel celebrates the origins of the tri-regional, multi-institutional collaboration by inviting former Kunsthalle Basel director Peter Pakesch, one of the initiators of Regionale, to curate the annual exhibition of work by artists from the region.

For further information and image requests, please contact press@kunsthallebasel.ch.