Körperlich / Group Exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Basel
Coinciding with Kunsttage Basel, the second exhibition in Hauser & Wirth's new Basel gallery is titled ‘Körperlich’, meaning ‘bodily’ in English. ‘Körperlich’ is a group show of women artists. Coinciding with Kunsttage Basel, the exhibition explores the body’s role in the construction and expression of identity through works by Louise Bourgeois, Maria Lassnig, Meret Oppenheim, Alina Szapocznikow, Irène Zurkinden, Lee Lozano, Hannah Villiger and Carol Rama. In this video, Carlo Knoell (Senior Director, Hauser & Wirth) guides us through the exhibition and talks about some of the highlights. ‘Körperlich’ at Hauser & Wirth Basel runs until November 2, 2024.
Körperlich / Group Exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Basel. Exhibition walkthrough with Carlo Knoell (Senior Director, Hauser & Wirth), Basel (Switzerland), August 29, 2024.
Körperlich / Group Exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Basel. Exhibition walkthrough with Carlo Knoell (Senior Director, Hauser & Wirth), Basel (Switzerland), August 29, 2024.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00I'm going to show you a little bit of what it's like to be in a train station.
00:07I'm going to show you a little bit of what it's like to be in a train station.
00:10I'm going to show you a little bit of what it's like to be in a train station.
00:13I'm going to show you a little bit of what it's like to be in a train station.
00:16I'm going to show you a little bit of what it's like to be in a train station.
00:19I'm going to show you a little bit of what it's like to be in a train station.
00:22I'm going to show you a little bit of what it's like to be in a train station.
00:38Welcome to the Basel space of Haus & Wirth.
00:42Welcome to the Basel space of Haus & Wirth.
00:43Welcome to the Basel space of Haus & Wirth.
00:44The gallery space in Basel, which has been quite recently opened.
00:47June this year, basically, with a solo presentation by Danish artist Wilhelm Hammershøi.
00:53June this year, basically, with a solo presentation by Danish artist Wilhelm Hammershøi.
00:56My name is Carl Knoll, so I'm running the space here.
00:59I'm senior director and focusing on the historical artists of the gallery.
01:05I'm senior director and focusing on the historical artists of the gallery.
01:06We are now in an exhibition, which is being opened now,
01:12called Körperlich, Bodily, Visible Body.
01:16It's a group exhibition with eight different female protagonists,
01:23important female artists of the 20th century.
01:26It's a historical show, including Luise Bourgeois,
01:32one of the core artists of the gallery,
01:35including the important sculpture work of Shapofnikov,
01:41including Swiss legendary artist, so to speak, Merit Oppenheim, here in the back.
01:49And basically, it's a group show, including some really important artists of the gallery,
01:56where the gallery is committed since a long period of time,
01:59like this very important and quite often shown sculpture by Luise Bourgeois, for example.
02:08And then, really including works which are not foreign to the gallery,
02:14which have been in the main interest of Ursula Hauser,
02:17the collector from the collection, so to speak.
02:21But still, it hasn't been shown within the gallery's program.
02:25So, for example, Karl Rahmer, which is being considered
02:29one of the most important female Italian artists.
02:33So, these are two works from the mid-60s,
02:38two works which are also including the topic of what is a body,
02:43what is a female body, what is a distorted body.
02:47And if you go closer, I don't know if you can do any close-ups,
02:51you will see it's a painting, but it's really in a very three-dimensional way.
02:56You see the plaster, you see how she sprayed the paintings,
03:00how she glued these collages in here.
03:03This work is from 1969. It's a very important painting.
03:08And luckily, and that's very nice, it's more or less a coincidence,
03:12but there will be a major retrospective opening at the beginning of October
03:18in Frankfurt at the Schirn Kunsthalle,
03:20and the exhibition will then move to Bern, to the Kunstmuseum.
03:25So, in a way, it's very nice to feature this artist
03:28with three very important works, smaller works, which is quite intimate,
03:33but also has incredible wall power, so to speak,
03:36which is also playing between being a painting, being a body,
03:41being a living, dead kind of material with these collages,
03:46including often plastic and very experimental materials.
03:53And we thought that it's a very nice exchange and conversation,
03:58especially actually with the central piece by Louise Bourgeois.
04:04Here are two works by Merit Oppenheim.
04:07Also, relation, I think, is very important.
04:10This is one of the largest paintings by her from the mid-60s.
04:17And also here, again, it's abstract, obviously,
04:20but then you ask yourself, is it really abstract?
04:23It's very organic, like this kind of piece of wood,
04:26which is applied on the canvas, the canvas is painted,
04:30but also here you will see different kind of structures of sculptures of gesso.
04:36So, it's also here the question, what is a body?
04:38What is an abstract body?
04:40What is a painting?
04:41What is a sculpture?
04:43Is it living?
04:44Is it mortal?
04:46So, in this sense, and actually next to this work on paper,
04:50but still the mask, the sculpture, a small but beautiful gem
04:55also by Merit Oppenheim, quite close to the date, basically.
05:00So, we thought this is an interesting room.
05:03And of course, like Shapovnikov, I think it's nice to also have a closer look here.
05:08A plaster sculpture is one of the very rare plaster sculptures of,
05:14also you can call it a self-portrait somehow,
05:17with the lips small, but extremely intimate, extremely fragile.
05:22And in this sense, also, at least a body part of a portrait, so to speak.
05:28I think we are just moving slowly to this direction.
05:37Hello.
05:39So, we are actually quite interesting also in the topic of body
05:44and the abstraction of a body, Maria Lasnik, which also is,
05:48I wouldn't say a self-portrait, but it's always a reflection on her body,
05:52on herself, on her images.
05:56And it's very beautiful to have this work within this group of less colorful works.
06:04This again is getting noisy now, sorry.
06:07This is a work by Carlo Rama, again, an abstract work.
06:12And it's very important to know that Carlo Rama,
06:16very similarly actually to Lise Bourgeois,
06:19like nearly all her work are somehow an autobiography.
06:24And it's by the reflection about her childhood.
06:27And her father had a company, like a production of wheels, plastic wheels.
06:35And at some part, he went bankrupt and committed suicide.
06:39And this prodigy had a huge implication on the whole family, on her mother.
06:44So, there was extreme suffering, extreme distortion of her biography.
06:50And it's always these works, you feel there's a certain weight,
06:54there's a certain like also kind of, as I said,
06:58a reflection on her inner self and her early childhood.
07:02And the material of like the plastic, like the chopped pieces of this wheel
07:06is always, in a way, a self-portrait in every painting,
07:10even though it might seem like an abstract painting in itself.
07:15This is next to Lee Lozano, like a great major American female artist,
07:23also like working on the topic of the body,
07:26on different body parts, so to speak, but also on abstraction.
07:30So, you see like the face here, but the rest is really purely abstract.
07:34So, it's very interesting to see how these two aspects of being abstract
07:38and being about like a body and something sculpture are like closely linked.
07:44Here in the back, we see something which is also something
07:49which is not within the gallery's program,
07:51but we are very happy to be able to show these four,
07:56I'm not allowed to say photographies, but they are like sculptures,
07:59by Hannah Villiger, a Swiss artist,
08:02an artist who at the beginning was doing amazing sculptures,
08:06but more or less destroyed everything.
08:08And then she moved on, like buying Polaroid, like Polaroid photographies
08:14and doing like photos of herself, of her skin, of like different movements.
08:19So, these are all like unique sculptures, so to speak.
08:22And we're extremely happy to show these works alongside
08:28Luise Bourgeois, Shapofnikov.
08:31Like here in the back is actually a very nice in-between
08:34with an early work by Irene Zurkenten from the 30s.
08:38So, we try to exchange materials, topics, biographies, artists.
08:44And I think that's quite nice.
08:47At the entrance is a more, I would say, a more private room.
08:54So, these are like two, this is actually a friendship room.
08:59So, this is one of the most iconic works and pieces in this case,
09:05a table, a table sculpture, also reflecting obviously on the body
09:10of Merit Oppenheim, like a lifetime work.
09:15So, there's a small edition of 30 pieces of this table.
09:18And this is one of this lifetime tables.
09:22And then in the back, you have actually the closest friends
09:24of Merit Oppenheim, Irene Zurkenten.
09:28So, they have a very close biography.
09:31So, Irene Zurkenten and Merit Oppenheim spent her early years
09:35in the 30s in Paris.
09:37So, these are drawings from early sketchbooks.
09:41Also, again, on the body, but also here, distortion, dancing,
09:46shoes, objects, self-portrait, self-portrait, self-portrait,
09:52self-portrait with her husband, but then always bringing
09:55like collage, bringing like abstract elements, or even like
09:58this is particularly interesting, like this bust, which is also
10:01kind of a female body, but then like it seemingly also
10:05might be a sculpture.
10:06So, it's also reflecting on this topic.
10:09And actually being very nicely in this room compared to this
10:12late work by Merit Oppenheim again, like it's one year
10:16before she passes away, and she's like actually drawing
10:19or more like painting both of her legs.
10:22So, this is a small walkthrough, this exhibition, which tries
10:29to combine like Swiss artists, international artists,
10:33artists which are linked to the gallery,
10:35artists which haven't been shown before.
10:37So, it's this in-between and this exchange of this
10:41historical protagonists.