Public Art Projects - Art | 40 | Basel

Valentin Carron: Fosbury Flop, 2009. 1210 x 628 x 628 cm. Wood, steel, paint

Valentin Carron: Fosbury Flop, 2009. 1210 x 628 x 628 cm. Wood, steel, paint		Valentin Carron: Fosbury Flop, 2009. 1210 x 628 x 628 cm. Wood, steel, paint

Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, shows Fosbury Flop (2009) by Swiss artist Valentin Carron, an immense cross made of wood, evoking questions about the symbolically enhanced objects that the artist finds in his immediate environment. The cross is both a public sculpture entailing universally known religious connotations and an abstract relief of two crossing lines referencing abstract art.

General Idea: AIDS Sculpture, 1989. 200 x 200 x 100 cm. Lacquered meta

General Idea: AIDS Sculpture, 1989. 200 x 200 x 100 cm. Lacquered meta		General Idea: AIDS Sculpture, 1989. 200 x 200 x 100 cm. Lacquered meta

Both artefact and artwork, the AIDS sculpture (1989) recalls the late 1980s and the early 1990s, when the AIDS epidemic dominated headlines. The six-foot lacquered metal sculpture was created in 1989 by AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal of General Idea (presented by Esther Schipper, Berlin; Galerie Mai 36, Zurich; Galerie d’Art Contemporain Frédéric Giroux, Paris) at a time when few artworks dealt specifically with AIDS. Inspired by American artist Robert Indiana's first 1970 LOVE sculpture, General Idea replaced the word LOVE with AIDS, compressing the letters into two rows within a perfect square. Displayed outdoors on different sites since 1989, the sculpture has accumulated extensive graffiti, which itself then became an integral part of the work.

Mark Handfort: Platz, 2007. 500 x 500 x 500 cm. Steel frame, polyuretane foam, epoxy resin, fiberglass, enamel

Mark Handfort: Platz, 2007. 500 x 500 x 500 cm. Steel frame, polyuretane foam, epoxy resin, fiberglass, enamel		Mark Handfort: Platz, 2007. 500 x 500 x 500 cm. Steel frame, polyuretane foam, epoxy resin, fiberglass, enamel

In his work Platz (2007) Mark Handforth (Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich) created massively dimensioned pieces of a chain that are interlaced and become an entity appearing to be almost organic. In his sculptural installations, Handforth transplants familiar objects into unfamiliar surroundings, in order to reveal something new about the ways in which these things exist and function in our everyday lives, and transforms them into a new form of physical poetics.

Jeppe Hein: Loop Bench, 2006. 120 x 1800 x 1300 cm Powder-coated galvanized steel

Jeppe Hein: Loop Bench, 2006. 120 x 1800 x 1300 cm. Powder-coated galvanized steel		Jeppe Hein: Loop Bench, 2006. 120 x 1800 x 1300 cm. Powder-coated galvanized steel

Loop Bench (2006) by Danish artist Jeppe Hein (Johann König, Berlin) is an artwork derived from the basic form of a usual park bench. The work enlarges the bench to an absurd degree, forming a long bench loop with crossings and bending, thus creating a kind of maze-like structure for visitors to sit on. At the same time the bench has its own sculptural quality. The key aspect of the artwork is the reaction or interaction it provokes in the viewer, and the ways in which that reaction ripples out to create further reactions and interactions, such that the artwork becomes the centre of a series of events and unpredictable social encounters.

John McCracken: Liftoff, 2009. Stainless steel

John McCracken: Liftoff, 2009. Stainless steel		John McCracken: Liftoff, 2009. Stainless steel

David Zwirner, New York, presents John McCracken’s new work Liftoff (2009), a sculpture consisting of a rectangular stainless steel column. As one of the West Coast Minimalists, McCracken calls his objects “blocks, slabs, columns, planks. Basic beautiful forms, neutral forms”. Bold solid colors with their highly polished finish will reflect the Messeplatz, as well as the observer, in a way that takes the work into another dimension.

Mathieu Mercier: Untitled, 2009. 500 x 700 x 400 cm. Lacquered steel

Mathieu Mercier: Untitled, 2009. 500 x 700 x 400 cm. Lacquered steel		Mathieu Mercier: Untitled, 2009. 500 x 700 x 400 cm. Lacquered steel

The sculpture Untitled (2009) by Mathieu Mercier (Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin) resembles a monumental, monochrome colored line, based on scientific research concerning our visual perception: When looking at our environment the eye shifts and moves from point to point, from detail to detail - rather than perceiving the entire structure simultaneously. Settled on the border of architecture and design, Mercier’s object-like sculptures possess a strong relation to banal behaviour patterns.

Ken Price: Bulgogi, 2006-2008. Painted brooze composite

Ken Price: Bulgogi, 2006-2008. Painted brooze composite		Ken Price: Bulgogi, 2006-2008. Painted brooze composite

Ken Price (Matthew Marks Gallery, New York) will present his first monumental outdoor sculpture, Bulgogi (2009), which stands over seven feet tall and presents the viewer with an entirely new way of seeing the artist’s work. The sculpture is made of clay elements whose surfaces, each painted with many layers of color, are then sanded down to create a rich and patterned skin.

Gabriel Kuri: Hard-pressed wire, 2009. 380 x 380 x 550 cm. Plywood, timber, paint, smashed can, lights, cables

Gabriel Kuri: Hard-pressed wire, 2009. 380 x 380 x 550 cm. Plywood, timber, paint, smashed can, lights, cables		Gabriel Kuri: Hard-pressed wire, 2009. 380 x 380 x 550 cm. Plywood, timber, paint, smashed can, lights, cables

The double meaning in the title Hard-pressed Wire, by Gabriel Kuri (Galleria Franco Noero, Torino), is rather telling of the content in this piece. On the one hand it evokes the way in which an urgent news item is tagged in the lingo of the communication industry, and on the other, a direct allusion to physical compression. The sculpture is made of a large and empty floor-standing floodlighted billboard, against which a crushed tropical juice can is propped up by a long wooden beam. This creates a contrast between the actual physical weight of the structure and the lightness of the can. The commercial and promotional functions of the billboard are appropriated in order to depict the image of a distant oasis, flattened onto the vanishing point of its surface.

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