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30/5/2013

Videocity.bs

Different venues, Basel

A cooperative project between Andrea Domesle (curator) and Pro Innerstadt Basel.

Videocity.bs creates a magic space for unexpected encounters and perspectives. The sixteen locations are strung along an itinerary between the Messeplatz and the SBB station that fits in the old center of Basel, with its guild houses and stores. It crosses the paths of Baselers and others in the midst of their daily activities, on their way to work or to shop, if not to bathe in the Rhine. Tourists visiting the Town Hall, the Cathedral, and the Art Museum will inevitably come Videocity.bs.

Sixteen stores in Basel have made their windows available to sixteen local video artists. The whole presents a survey of video art in Basel and the Basel area from its beginnings in the late 1970s until today, providing unexpected glimpses of the wares on display and into the everyday life and fantasies of the artists. Window shoppers can expect many surprises during their outings between 9:00 and 22:00 until the 28th of July.

Art makes it possible to see the world of everyday life in unfamiliar ways. At the same time, this everyday world offers unexpected points of friction for the artworks, lends more weight to the artistic statements or introduces new approaches. Life is literally reflected in the video monitors, interwoven into the imaginative worlds of the artists and permits up-to-date interpretations. Such moments were underscored by the curator Andrea Domesle through the choice and placement of the videos. Pipilotti Rist, one of today's best-known Swiss artists, performs a karaoke number in her 1990 video and so appears almost like a "street singer" in the Basel of today. In Hurter-Urech's video, a couple embraces in the Texan desert whenever a freight train thunders past them. Do the trams of Basel screeching by prompt us to do the same?

The sixteen videos show that our city has a potential for transformation and creativity. Some of the films were made in far-off lands, others in Basel itself. Some views can be recognized, even when Saskia Edens turns the red Town Hall blue. Erich Busslinger captured the Switzerland of 2004 in his "Inland Archives," which includes 258 sequences. It would be a coincidence indeed if someone from the neighborhood kept walking past at the same moment! In 1979, Anna Winteler turned a stroll from the Middle Bridge to the Wettstein Bridge into a "petit déjeuner" for the male gaze, which can be seen today in a fine pastry shop—with or without breakfast. For Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick and Fränzi Madörin, the "ideal studio" is one's own home, where everyday life becomes a humorous source of inspiration. Claire Guerrier lets young employees of unternehmen mitte tell about their plans and visions for life. The snails inching their way through Copa & Sordes' video still life can be read—Art Basel oblige—as an ironic commentary on the progress of an artist's career. As Videocity.bs clearly shows, interpretations all depend on the vantage point, the beholder and the surroundings. Videocity.bs enriches Basel with an ephemeral and enchanting new facet and hopes to inspire many discussions and visions.

Contact
Andrea Domesle, Kuratorin, a.domesle@gmx.ch, Mobil +41 79 128 23 61
Mathias F. Böhm, Geschäftsführer Pro Innerstadt Basel, mathias.f.boehm@proinnerstadt.ch,
Phone Pro Innerstadt Basel +41 61 271 67 84
Press photos by Annie Heine und Nina Greuter, mail@videocitybs.ch

The complete programme is on the website
www.videocitybs.ch

Opening: May 31, 19:00, unternehmen mitte, Gerbergasse 30, 4001 Basel

Different venues - Basel
From 9:00 to 22:00 (visible from the street)

stampa

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