Category Archives: Shows

Regionale Concerto finale 24

Gratitude for 25 years of Kunsthaus Baselland and the start of a new era

This year’s Regionale at Kunsthaus Baselland is a very special one. For the past 25 years, Kunsthaus Baselland has been shaped by the contributions of more than 1300 artists from both the region and abroad, with 193 solo exhibitions and 87 group exhibitions. This collective effort has transformed the institution into what it is today – one of the foremost destinations for contemporary art in the region, serving as a hub for artistic production and its dissemination. The upcoming move from Muttenz to the Dreispitz location in Münchenstein in the spring of 2024 marks the start of a new chapter for our institution in a fresh setting and with new premises. To celebrate this transition and to express our deep gratitude to all those involved, we will be collaborating with nearly 30 artists to show large-scale works in a variety of disciplines, along with perfomances, sound works, and concerts that collectively pay tribute to the venue and its rich history. Running concurrently with the Regionale is a solo exhibition by the artist Chiara Bersani, whose performative work is likewise intimately connected to Kunsthaus Baselland. In a spirit of artistic camaraderie, she becomes an integral part of the Regionale.

The Regionale is an annual group exhibition developed in the context of a cross-border cooperation of 20 institutions in Germany, France, and Switzerland with a focus on local contemporary art production in the three-country region around Basel.

Curator: Ines Goldbach, Ines Tonda

 

Reto Boller – Here – Museum Langmatt, CH-Baden

Reto Boller (*1966 in Zurich, lives there) is one of the most inventive Swiss artists. He probes the boundaries between painting, architecture and object and goes beyond traditional expectations. His work has attracted international attention for many years. Since 2007, Reto Boller has held a professorship for painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart.

As part of the overall renovation of Langmatt, Reto Boller – alongside the artist duo Bigler/Weibel and Silvan Wegmann – was invited to participate in one of three process-based long-term art projects. Three different perspectives and artistic media accompany and document the structural changes during the approximately two-year overall renovation. During this time, snapshots will repeatedly be visible on the website and in the museum’s newsletters as well as on social media. The projects will culminate in three cabinet exhibitions for the reopening of the Langmatt in spring/summer 2026.

Reto Boller’s multifaceted spatial and material explorations are a perfect match for the Langmatt’s renovation process. During this time, the listed building offers rare opportunities for the artist’s distinct sensorium in dealing with space and material. Reto Boller will kick off the three processual projects with a small exhibition in autumn 2023. From the end of October, paintings and Asian ceramics, furniture and curtains, crystal chandeliers and carpet will have already disappeared from the 18ième room to provide opportunities for installation interventions to unfold. Artistic changes are also taking place in the Green Salon and the corridor. The familiar image of the Langmatt is transformed: for example, wall coverings have been removed and floors taped off, giving the impression that the renovation of the century-old villa has already begun. Reto Boller’s mysterious interventions set the imagination in motion and herald the structural metamorphosis of Langmatt.

The artist will continue to follow the conversion process during the closure period and will be on site again and again to collect impressions and images. Another part of the artistic interventions will be on display in a cabinet exhibition for the reopening of the Langmatt in spring 2026. Thus the circle closes: in retrospect, not only the interventions are shown in context, but also the manifold changes of the Langmatt.

zu viel blau wird schnell Nacht – Städtische Galerie, D-Ostfildern

Der Stuttgarter Künstler Fabian Treiber präsentiert Malerei, die architektonische Ein- und Ausblicke mit Darstellung von Landschaft verbindet. Einzelne Gegenstände, Spuren menschlicher Anwesenheit werden kombiniert mit Ideen von Landschaftsräumen, Pflanzen, Gräsern, Gewächsen. Mit seiner ganz eigenen Bildsprache erzeugt er eine surreal anmutende, geheimnisvolle und spezifische Atmosphäre. Diese ermöglicht es den Betrachterinnen, eigene Lesarten zu entwickeln und die Bildwelten zu Projektionsräumen für eigene Assoziationen, Interpretationen und Geschichten zu machen.
Gezielt platzierte flächige Bereiche erwecken den Eindruck von Weite und Unendlichkeit. Präzise gesetzte lineare Darstellungen geben dem Auge Halt, gliedern die Flächen und lassen uns mit den Augen gewissermaßen in die Details zoomen. So erscheinen die Bilder gleichzeitig flach und tief, sind flächig und ornamental zugleich. Sein Farbspektrum vermittelt den Eindruck von Leichtigkeit, es bewegt sich im Bereich der Pastellfarben, wirkt leicht und klar.
Fenster, Türen und Treppen markieren die Schwelle zwischen innen und außen und dennoch bleiben die Grenzen fließend und offen für Um- und Neudeutungen. Es gibt keine Festschreibungen. Alles ist im Fluss, ist in Bewegung, verwandelt sich. Fabian Treiber schenkt uns neue Blicke auf das, was wir zu kennen glauben.

Susanne Weiß schreibt unter der Überschrift Luzides Träumen: „Luftig-luzide sein Blick auf eben jene „most common things“, (…) Wunderbar haltlos im fein austarierten Wechselspiel der Gefühle, in dem das Abwesende anwesend und das Anwesende abwesend sein darf.“

Fancy Some Friction, Honey? Kunsthalle, NL-Rotterdam

33 Years of Cokkie Snoei’s Gallery, Rotterdam

For over thirty years, Rotterdam gallerist Cokkie Snoei played an important role in the city’s artistic climate. Shown at Kunsthal Rotterdam from Saturday 14 October, the exhibition ‘Fancy Some Friction, Honey?’, presents the work of 33 artists personally selected by Cokkie Snoei and represented by her gallery. The selected works reflect the quirky choices Cokkie has constantly made since the start of her career, her personal views, and the spirit of the times during the various decades. According to Cokkie, art should be funny, bizarre, perhaps even ugly, but never boring or predictable.

Intuitiv. Zwei Sammlungen begegnen sich – Kunst(Zeug)Haus Rapperswil

Like a bubble in water, it rises to the surface and makes a judgement within seconds: when we meet a person for the first time, enter an unfamiliar room or struggle to find the right words in a conversation. Like an inner compass, intuition shows us the direction, even though we are not always aware of the reason.

The exhibition explores this inward look and brings together for the first time two collections of Swiss contemporary art: the collection of Elisabeth and Peter Bosshard and that of the architect and gallery owner Bob Gysin and his wife Kathrin Gysin. Both couples accompanied the work of selected artists for decades, were on friendly terms with them and also relied on their intuition when collecting.

With works by Klaus Born, Matthias Bosshart, Christoph Brünggel, Stéphane Brunner, Martin Disler, Urs Frei, Dominique Lämmli, Bessie Nager, Flavio Paolucci, Carmen Perrin, Eva-Maria Pfaffen, Adrian Schiess, Cécile Wick, Andrea Wolfensberger.