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.
Comments