Mitchell Anderson | Regionale 21 | Kunsthaus Baselland

Regionale 21

group show

 

November 28, 2020 - January 1, 2021

 

A series of work titles. Reminiscent of a poem, these words unite the various artists’ works beyond their position in the exhibition. The words allow for new connections. A kind of poetry in the space, which gives us space to think: different languages, styles, and subjects invite us to reconsider the prescribed and the familiar and to connect what is separated. 

The invited artists use existing resources and structures but intentionally extract individual elements in order to create new relationships through their own artistic strategies. 

The exhibition at the Kunsthaus Baselland presents seventeen artists who, in an incisive appraisal of their immediate environment, pose urgent questions about our current habits and our current situation. The resulting conceptual spaces are explored by different external guests each week, who expand them with their own perspectives. Souvenir-like texts allow the visitors to remember what they have seen and to pursue some of the ideas themselves. 

KuratorIn: Géraldine Honauer, Ines Tondar and Ines Goldbach (Assistant Curator)
 
“Gratis” or “zu verschenken”—free, to give away—appear as supposedly inviting messages on fly-tip situations by Mitchell Anderson (born 1985). The artist finds these objects in his immediate environment and, via linear arrangement in Kunsthaus Baselland, refers to similar street settings visitors would walk past with their gaze averted. The sometimes unlawful giving-away of items here highlights step-by-step the discrepancy between self-interest and generosity, revealing at the same time social and hierarchical principles. The video work Las Hilanderas (James S. Brady Briefing Room, White House, USA February 25, 2020) in the adjacent room shows the minutes before a White House press conference. At the point of intersection between politics and the public, journalists prepare for reporting, thus keeping viewers on hold. The moment of closure never occurs, the position of power remaining unoccupied. The focus instead turns towards the reporters, in the audience’s hope that they will preserve independence and objectivity. The title, chosen in reference to large-scale painting LasHilanderas (The Spinners) by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), suggests—sometimes by way of the visually depicted Aracne mythology—that censorship and bias are more likely to occur within contemporary governments. These two positions are bound together by an interest in decontextualizing existing materials and by a keen eye for the unspectacular, emphasizing at the same time the far-reaching meaning and depth of these ordinary moments.

 

For further information, please visit the website:

https://kunsthausbaselland.ch/en/ausstellungen/regionale-21

November 28, 2020
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