March 23–25, 2017
Encounters to present 17 ambitious large-scale projects—including 12 new works—by leading artists from across Asia and beyond
Art Basel in Hong Kong’s widely acclaimed Encounters sector—a unique platform dedicated to presenting large-scale sculptural installations that transcend the traditional art fair booth—returns this year with 17 projects by internationally renowned artists. Curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director of Artspace in Sydney, the 2017 edition will feature work by Pio Abad, Rasheed Araeen, Katharina Grosse, Gonkar Gyatso, Joyce Ho, Hu Qingyan, Bingyi, Waqas Khan, Kimsooja, Alicja Kwade, Dinh Q. Lê, Li Jinghu, Sanné Mestrom, Michael Parekowhai, Shen Shaomin, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Wang Wei.
Information on individual presentations:
Gagosian will present a series of six new sculptures by German artist Katharina Grosse.
Kukje Gallery / Tina Kim Gallery will show Deductive Object (2016) by Kimsooja. Reconceptualised for Encounters, the work will be composed of a spherical structure sitting above a stainless steel, polished base that creates a mirroring effect.
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery and Michael Lett will present Putto (2015–16) by Michael Parekowhai. The interactive sculpture will allow visitors to sit on an elongated bench, sharing the space with a large sculptural cherub, or putto, who appears to be sleeping, drunk or dead.
Edouard Malingue Gallery will debut Slipping Mural 2 (2017) by Chinese artist Wang Wei. The floor-based installation uses images from a Beijing zoo and an idyllic beach framed by a palm tree, birds and clouds, exploring the return to nature in its most basic form and reflecting upon the nature of reality.
10 Chancery Lane Gallery and P.P.O.W will explore today’s global refugee crisis with an installation titled The Deep Blue Sea (2017) by Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Lê. To create the cascading scroll installation, Lê has appropriated four images from the ongoing boat refugee crises in the Mediterranean Sea. By stretching a single image across 150-foot expanse of photo paper, Lê’s photographic installation uses arresting scale to scrutinize the significance of still frames in our collective culture.
Osage Gallery will present Summit (2009–10) by Shen Shaomin, which features sculptures of five deceased Communist leaders: Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong.
Silverlens will show Not a Shield, but a Weapon (2016) by Pio Abad. The installation consists of 180 counterfeit reproductions of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s iconic handbag—produced in Marikina in the Philippines—and continues Abad’s interest in exploring ideas surrounding value, cultural artefacts and the political histories of the United Kingdom and the Philippines.
Magician Space will premiere Archaeology of the Present (Dongguan) (2017), an installation by Li Jinghu. Inspired by the artist’s hometown of Dongguan, which has become an industrial centre sometimes referred to as "the factory of the world," the installation will feature lights from factories that Li Jinghu has transformed into abstract clouds.
Pearl Lam Galleries will present Family Album (2016), a new work by Gonkar Gyatso, which attempts to redefine the narrative of Tibet and examine how a once remote culture has become a part of a globalized world.
Sullivan+Strumpf will premiere an installation by Sanné Mestrom. The Bathers (2016), based on Cézanne’s infamous painting of the same name, extends Mestrom’s investigation into the language of painting as explored through sculptural form. The work will be the artist's most ambitious work to date, consisting of a series of three large resin figurine abstractions that appear to recline in the "tears" of a fourth abstracted figurine—a large aluminum and bronze "water fountain."
Galerie Krinzinger will show the drawing-sculpture In the Name of God II (2017) by Waqas Khan, which unfolds through space like a geometric parchment, or a huge book of contiguous pages. Drawing onto Wasli Paper, a hand-made paper used since the 10th century in India for painting miniatures in particular, the artist models his filigree works after the Bardhakhat technique, a basic technique of Persian Mughal miniature painting. This involves the artist applying thousands of small dots, lines and dashes to the paper with the greatest of precision.
House of Red Bamboo (2017) by Rasheed Araeen will be premiered by Rossi & Rossi. The scaffolding structure made of bamboo references the artist’s long-standing investigations into geometric and architectural structures as postmodernist representations of non-compositional forms, and metaphorically their reference to utopian ideologies following the Constructivist and De Stijl movements.
Galerie Urs Meile will present Go in One Ear and out The Other (2017) by Hu Qingyan. The complex and space-consuming iron installation deals—on multiple levels—with the theme of space, and consists of industrially manufactured iron pipe segments used for underground water and gas pipelines.
König Galerie, 303 Gallery and kamel mennour will jointly premiere The Beat (2017) by Alicja Kwade. Continuing her interest in sculptural representations of the world’s time zones, Kwade has created a six-meter long sculpture consisting of 26 steel beam elements placed on top of one another, representing the longitude of time.
neugerriemschneider will present a large-scale installation by Rirkrit Tiravanija. Within a structure built of traditionally tied bamboo scaffolding, visitors will discover five versions of the same 3D-printed bonsai tree positioned on bases inspired by Constantin Brâncuși’s wooden pedestals.
Wanwu: Metamorphosis (2013) by Bingyi will be shown by Ink Studio. It will be the first time that Bingyi’s large-scale landscape ink paintings will be exhibited and installed within the context of an international art fair. The immersive installation consists of panels taken from the artist’s monumental series "Wanwu," which was inspired by China’s dramatic landscapes and weather.
The Encounters sector will once again be presented on the show's four meridians that divide up the two exhibition halls. However, one Encounter work will be placed in a hidden dedicated space behind the main show floor. Based around our perceptions of everyday situations and experiences of life, On the second day, Saturday, your three minutes, (2017) by Joyce Ho serves to magnify the smaller rituals often neglected in our lives and to urge the viewer toward a reflection on the details of everyday life. The installation and performance work will be presented by TKG+.
Art Basel, whose lead partner is UBS, will be open to the public from Thursday, March 23, to Saturday, March 25, 2017, with a preview and vernissage on Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday.
