Kunsthalle
dal 16/1/2002 al 10/3/2002
Segnalato da
16/1/2002
Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
January 17 - March 10, 2002
Ernesto Neto
January 19 - March 10, 2002
Franz Ackermann: A night in the Tropics
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Ernesto Neto
It is imperative that the works of Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto (born 1964,
lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) be experienced individually. They can be
entered into, touched, even smelled and heard. Neto usually creates
works for a specific space; his stretch fabric sculptures are integrated
into the existing architecture. When viewed from outside, they appear to
be huge sculptures, when entered into they open up whole new spaces
and one risks getting lost inside them like in a labyrinth. What may seem
astonishing in view of the unusual materials he utilises is that the artist is
actually exploring the classical issues of sculpture: space, volume,
gravity, mass and light are the cornerstones of his artistic deliberations.
Visually his works are ingeniously designed, creating a new impression
of volume and weight and altering the light in and around the sculptures.
With his sculptures Ernesto Neto not only reacts to the given
circumstances and the architecture, but also includes human behaviour.
Forces become tangible, heaviness and lightness assume a physical
presence. The flimsy sculptures made of stretch stocking fabric appeal to
all our senses; they may be touched and walked on, as they can only be
experienced fully through interaction. Many of his works contain different
spices which in addition to visual and haptic also trigger sensorial
perceptions. Other creations can be literally donned by the visitors with
the result that, once completely enclosed by them, they can experience
their bodies, mass, and movement anew. These abstract works are
always related to the human body by way of their form and material:
amorphous shapes merge like cells; fabrics separate different spaces like
membranes. The soft, organic forms inspire us to see the artworks as
autonomous creatures full of poetry and humour.
A work by Ernesto Neto was already on show at the Kunsthalle in the
group exhibition "Raumkörper. Netze und andere Gebilde" (2000); last
year, the artist also featured prominently on the Brazilian pavilion at the
Venice Biennale. In the installation he has developed specially for the
Oberlichtsaal in the Kunsthalle, light and its sculpturing features come to
the fore much more so than in his earlier works. The spaces enclosed in
fabric group to form a freely hovering construct that is permeated by air
and light. The visitors are invited to wander around this soft and poetic
world of organic forms and gain new sensorial impressions through a
direct interaction that changes how the sculpture, the museum space,
and their own bodies are perceived.
Image: Ernesto Neto
Pé de Sonho (Dream Foot), 1999
Courtesy Galeria Camargo Vilaça, Sao Paulo
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Franz Ackermann
Franz Ackermann (born 1963, lives in Berlin) has already been in Basel
having been commissioned to design the outside rear wall of the
Kunsthalle (Helicopter VIII, Die Reisterrassen von Basel, 2000). The
success of that project has led to an invitation to present a solo exhibition
at the Kunsthalle. In his artistic engagement with themes such as travel,
tourism, mobility and globalisation, Ackermann pulls all the registers:
richly-coloured flower-like landscapes emerge from the backgrounds;
photographs are mounted like huge posters; installations are reminiscent
of architectural structures familiar to us from our own travels.
In A Night in the Tropics the artist presents various scenographic "islands
in space". Painting, installation, photography and print media alternate,
while the different scenarios guide us through exotic landscapes,
buildings and grottoes. The journey becomes a transfer passage. Like
individual travel experiences, the encounter with the exotic in this
exhibition brings with it not just astonishment, fascination and delight in
the new, but also a moment of unease and an impression of absurdity.
Like many artists before him, Ackermann too sets out on the artistic
"grand tour", which focuses on the cultural metropolises and in particular
the "far-flung destinations" of mass tourism. During his travels the artist
makes countless Mental Maps: these small-scale watercolours are done
on his return to his hotel room. They do not, however, reproduce the
specific features of the place; on being recalled, the experiences meld
into ever more similar ornamental urban landscapes, irrespective of
where the artist happens to be at the time. Ackermann addresses our
current appropriation of the alien, which is coloured by a Eurocentric
view and peopled with the kind of stereotypes communicated by glossy
travel magazines.
Ackermann draws up an alternative cartography, raising questions to do
with the North-South gap, tourism and its commercial significance,
mobility, or how the media communicate the exotic. The concepts of
territory, of distance and proximity, are robbed of their apparent clarity.
The installations exudes an intoxicatingly sensual opulence which
preserves something of the fascination of the alien.
Opening hours:
Tuesday - Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Wednesday 11 a.m. - 8:30 p.m
closed on Mondays
Kunsthalle Basel
Steinenberg 7
CH-4051 Basel