As the art world prepares to make its annual pilgrimage to Art Basel in Basel, the fair has announced the 19 site-specific artworks that will make up its popular Parcours sector, curated for the first time by Samuel Leuenberger, a Basel native who took up the post of Parcours curator in June 2015.
Among the works on view will be art that responds to the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe. Sam Durant‘s steel Labyrinth, first shown in Philadelphia, was developed by the artist in conjunction with prisoners at Graterford State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania. A walk through the chain-link maze raises issues freedom and imprisonment that speaks to both mass incarceration in the US and the current plight of refugees.
Sam Durant, Labyrinth (2015). Courtesy photographer Steve Weinik for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Blum and Poe Gallery, Los Angeles, Sadie Coles HQ, London, and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
For his contribution, Alfredo Jaar revisits a 1998 public intervention staged in Stockholm called The Gift. In its original iteration, the piece was a commentary on the Rwanda civil war, and included a “gift” box where people could contribute to Medecins Sans Frontières and Doctors Without Borders. This time around, the box will focus on the immigration crisis.
Some Parcours projects will activate unexpected places. Iván Navarro, for instance, will utilize a disused sewage tunnel, as the setting for Traffic, a mobile made from functioning traffic lights.
Alfredo Jaar, The Gift (2016). Courtesy of Goodman Gallery.
Each evening will see performances, featuring artists such as Anne Imhof, Eva Kot’átková, Pádraic Moore, Nástio Mosquito, Tracey Rose and Chris Martin, and Mathilde Rosier. During part of Martin and Rose’s performance/installation, Martin will play the role of Cleopatra, or Mafrica, a black man in white-woman drag, while Rose will sing popular songs that draw on a history of oppression.
Jim Dine will also perform during the Parcours opening, reciting poems and inscribing them on the walls of his installation, Muscle and Salt, a room full of classically-inspired sculptures.
Here is the complete list of Parcours projects:
Trisha Baga, MS Orlando (2015)
Greene Naftali (New York), Gió Marconi (Milan), Société (Berlin), Vilma Gold (London)
Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Augustinergasse 2
Michael Dean, ffff (2016)
Supportico Lopez (Berlin), Herald St (London), Mendes Wood DM (São Paulo)
Rheinsprung
Jim Dine, Muscle and Salt, (2008–16)
Richard Gray Gallery (Chicago, New York)
Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, St. Alban-Graben 5
Sam Durant, Labyrinth (2015)
Blum & Poe (Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo), Paula Cooper Gallery (New York), Sadie
Coles HQ (London)
Alberto Garutti, The dog shown here belongs to one of the families of Trivero. This work is dedicated to
those families and to the people who will sit here and talk about them (2009)
Buchmann Galerie (Agra/Lugano, Berlin)
Vischer’sche Garten, Rittergasse 29A
Alfredo Jaar, The Gift (2016)
Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg, Cape Town), Galerie Lelong (Paris, New York),
Lia Rumma (Milan, Naples), kamel mennour (Paris), Galerie Thomas Schulte (Berlin)
On and around Münsterplatz
Hans Josephsohn, 15 sculptures, untitled (half-figures, standing and reclining figures), 1951–2006
Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, New York, Los Angeles, London, Somerset)
Münsterplatz
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, The Toilet on the River (1996–2016)
Sprovieri (London)
At the Rhein, below Pfalz
Eva Koťátková, CUTTING THE PUPPETEER`S STRINGS WITH PAPER TEETH (brief history of
daydreaming and string control), 2016
Meyer Riegger (Berlin, Karlsruhe)
Basler Marionettentheater, Münsterplatz 8
Allan McCollum, The Shapes Project: Shapes Spinoffs (2005–16)
Galerie Thomas Schulte (Berlin)
Museum der Kulturen Basel, Münsterplatz 20
Iván Navarro, Traffic (2015)
Galerie Daniel Templon (Paris, Brussels)
Birsigtunnel, below Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois
Virginia Overton, Untitled (2016)
White Cube (London, Hong Kong)
Bau- und Verkehrsdepartement Basel-Stadt, Rittergasse 4
Daniel Guztav Cramer, Coasts (2016)
Sies + Höke (Düsseldorf)
St. Alban Vorstadt 12
Andrew Dadson, Black Plant Sunset (2016)
Galleria Franco Noero (Turin), David Kordansky Gallery (Los Angeles), RaebervonStenglin
(Zurich)
Lichthof, Bau- und Verkehrsdepartement Basel-Stadt, Münsterplatz 11
Tabor Robak, Dog Park (2015)
team (gallery, inc.) (New York, Venice (Los Angeles)), Johan Berggren Gallery (Malmö)
Raphael Blechschmidt, Bäumleingasse 22
Tracey Rose, False Flag: A Deed in 2 Acts, Mandela Ball #8, and MaterPater (2016)
Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg, Cape Town)
Zivilstandsamt Basel-Stadt, Rittergasse 11
Bernar Venet, Effondrement:Arcs (2016)
von Bartha (Basel, S-chanf)
Ramsteinerhof, Rittergasse 17
Michael Wang, Basel Münster (2016)
Foxy Production (New York)
Basler Münster, Katharinenkapelle
Lawrence Weiner, MEIN HAUS IST DEIN HAUS DEIN HAUS IST MEIN HAUS WENN DU AUF DEN BODEN
SCHEISST GEHT’S AUCH AUF DEINE FÜSSE (2014)
Mai 36 Galerie (Zurich)
Gymnasium am Münsterplatz, Münsterplatz 15
Art Basel Parcours is opening June 16–19, 2016, with previews on June 14 and 15.