Layer of Wildness

A group exhibition with Caretto & Spagna, Seulgi Lee, Joshua Merchan Rodriguez, Mariana Murcia, Marie Raffn and Jessica Warboys, curated by Sandrine Desmoulin, Maria Claudia Gamboa, Sarah Menu and Richard Neyroud.

Begin at the source of the Ill, walk its course with the artists and rediscover a river that we cross every day without consideration. Where is it? Decide to cross through the bushes. A silver trickle runs through the daisies. She's become a teenager! exclaims a voice further down a meadow sweating from every pore in a glistening film. The water loses itself in the depths of the earth before emerging again through the marl soils, where it resurfaces. The artists needed to see these apparitions. Sometimes, the water was no longer there, it was somewhere else. The Ill disappears under a rock, above which a tree stands buzzing, like a hallucination guiding our steps towards other mirages.

How can we preserve the river's energy? Joshua Merchan Rodriguez accelerates the erosion of objects by capturing the force of the river's flow. Seulgi Lee encapsulates that flow in amulet flasks. Mariana Murcia transforms spring water into a living beverage. Marie Raffn reveals the waterway’s body through textile stitches and knots. Caretto & Spagna transfuse energy by collecting fragments of soil. Jessica Warboys perceives Antigone through a statue of Joan of Arc hidden in the Ill River during the war. The water’s memory overflows.

—Sandrine Desmoulin, Maria Claudia Gamboa, Sarah Menu and Richard Neyroud, May 2025.

Opening garden party: Thursday, June 19, 2025 at 7:30pm
On this occasion, a free shuttle will leave from Art Basel, departure from Bleichestrasse at 7pm, return to Basel at 11pm. Reservation: s.menu@cracalsace.com.

Layer of Wildness is organized in the context of “l'lll. A collaboration with the river between CEAAC, La Kunsthalle and CRAC Alsace”. This cooperative project is supported by Mieux produire, mieux diffuser, a program created by Ministère de la Culture—DRAC Grand Est and endorsed by Région Grand Est.

This exhibition receives funding from the Danish Arts Foundation.

CRAC Alsace is supported by Ville d’Altkirch, Collectivité européenne d’Alsace, Région Grand Est and Ministère de la Culture—DRAC Grand Est.

CRAC Alsace is certified as a Contemporary Art Center of National Interest by the French Ministry of Culture.