© John Akomfrah - The Airport, 2016, Lisson Gallery
© Cory Archengel - MIG 29 Soviet Fighter Plane and Clouds, 2005, Lisson Gallery
Art Basel, the largest modern and contemporary art fair in the world, opens its doors to the public on 15-18 June 2017 in Basel. More than 4000 artists and 280 galleries from around the world are present for this new edition. This year, the exhibition “Unlimited” devoted to XXL works returns with ever more monumental and unpublished works.
From the 15th to the 18th June 2017, Art Basel is the sounding board of the market, the trends and the life of the art. Off fairs and multiple and varied activities also flourish throughout the German-speaking part of the city. Founded in 1970 by art galleries in Basel, Art Basel is the first fair of modern and contemporary art.
“Unlimited”, presented as part of this fair, is the only exhibition in the world with such a large concentration of XXL works adoubés by the merchants. For this new edition, Art Basel Unlimited presents an important selection of projects that transcend the exhibition of classical art thanks to its massive sculptures and paintings, its video projections, its monumental installations and its shows.
For the first time, Cory Arcangel’s MIG 29 Soviet Fighter Plane and Clouds is exhibited in the format the artist originally intended. For this hack, the artist singled out the plane from the intro screen of the game, and programmed a new cartridge with just that, and then stole the clouds from later in the game, and made another cartridge which just has those. Reconfiguring web design and hacking as artistic practice, Arcangel remains faithful to Open Source culture and makes his work and methods available online, thus superimposing a perpetual question mark as to the value of the art object.
“Bora” by artist Yuri Ancarani is based on the cooperation and interaction between the visual arts and music, it consists of a 40-minute video that serves as a visual for a live concert. The video was filmed in the Karst region of the Rosandra valley, an area characterized by a rocky, rough, hard and fascinating appearance. The sound of the wind, with its gradations of intensity, accompanies the images of an overturned landscape, the main subject of the film. This scenario serves as a backdrop to the live performance of the musicians, with whom Ancarani establishes artistic collaborations from time to time.
More information about Art Basel here
