Angelica Mesiti: Reverb

In an era shaped by digital media, Reverb draws attention to alternative forms of human communication. The exhibition brings together five video works by the Australian, Paris based artist Angelica Mesiti who combines different disciplines in poetic ways. The works illustrate the enchantment of the everyday and show how cultural traditions, rituals, music and sounds shape identity and foster community.

Angelica Mesiti (born 1976) works at the interface of performance, sound and video. Her film works and spatial installations offer an experience of performative practices: sound, movement and gesture serve as forms of nonverbal communication and generate resonances between people, places and cultural practices. In this way, the exhibition title refers to reverberation not only as an acoustic phenomenon—in the same way as sound travels and echoes, ideas and information, too, are carried across space and time, continuing to make an impact.

In her most recent work, the seven-channel video installation The Rites of When (2024), Mesiti rethinks social rituals, taking as her point of departure old customs that follow nature and the cycle of the seasons. Such customs are often closely linked with knowledge of the stars and the movements of sun and moon that once informed the calendars of both agricultural activities and spiritual practices. The work is divided into two acts dedicated to the winter and summer solstices, using a combination of choreographies, vocal choirs, collective forms of physical sound production and electronic sounds to inquire into the future role of rituals. In view of the ecological uncertainty caused by climate change and human impacts on the environment, and the societal shift that is causing more and more people to live in cities and stay indoors, The Rites of When takes a sensory approach to explore new ways to connect.

A Hundred Years (2020) is a quiet meditation on the traces left by war on landscapes and on memory. On the battlefields of the Somme, the film follows the rhythm of the seasons—from winter to spring, summer and autumn. A century after World War I, nature has reclaimed the land, but craters, trenches and a single surviving tree remain as memorials. The scene centres on a musician walking in endless circles while playing a requiem for the fallen on a tin whistle. Free of heroism or nationalism, Mesiti draws attention to the ecological consequences of warfare, to cultural memory, and to the staying power of renewal and revival.

Sidereal (2024) shows a performance by two dancers, suspended from above, who slowly revolve around one another. Between gravity and weightlessness, their choreography recalls the movement of celestial bodies or satellites, their interaction sometimes a struggle, sometimes harmonious – a reflection on interpersonal relationships as well as cosmic forces. The work refers to sidereal time, an astronomical timescale based on the earth’s rotation in relation to stars rather than to the sun. A crepuscular background, shifting in colour like the changing light of day, plus a minimal sound composition, create a sensory space between Earth and outer space.

The three-part video installation Relay League (2017) is based on the final message sent in Morse code by the French Navy in 1997, marking its transition to digital communications. In the first video, a percussionist translates the sequence of dots and dashes into a drum composition. This then forms the basis for a choreography with a single dancer in the second part. In the third video, a dancer conveys the sequence of moves to her visually impaired partner by touch and guided gestures. In this way, the work develops a poetic reflection on the ways communication is changing and stresses the importance of direct physical contact in an era when machine codes are being constantly developed and renewed.

Prepared Piano for Movers (Haussmann) (2012) shows two movers in Paris carrying a grand piano up six flights of stairs. The soundtrack is a chance-based composition—inspired by John Cage, the piano was prepared by placing objects inside the instrument that create unpredictable percussive sounds with every movement. Converging with the men’s laborious efforts, this produces a musical score that reveals the grace of everyday events.

The exhibition is curated by Tabea Panizzi. Assistance: Maya Jung.

Events
Opening: March 17, 6:30pm
Free admission

Curator’s tour with the artist: March 19, 7pm
In English, free admission

Dance in Mesiti’s work: April 19, 3pm
Guided tour with the artist and curator, in English, museum admission

Compagnie Filipe Lourenço: CHEB: April 19, 5pm
An encounter between traditional dances of the Maghreb and contemporary soundscapes,
at Tanzhaus Basel, Horburgstrasse 103, 4058 Basel

Physical Introduction: May 24, 3pm
With Alma Toaspern, museum admission

Declan Whitaker: Away with the Faeries: May 27–31
Irish folklore and queer identity, at Kaserne Basel, Klybeckstrasse 1b, 4057 Basel

Physical Introduction: July 26, 3pm
With Natascha Moschini, museum admission