HR Giger

Since the early 1960’s, HR Giger’s prophetic visions have idealised the fusion between human body and technology. His Biomechanoïd representations span from sexual intercourse between humans and machines up to his most Orwellian depictions of out-of-body gestations. These interrogations of the mortal body’s biological limits rethinks the idea of the divine being in a Transhumanist perspective.

Marie Gyger

Bombshell, 2023 is an in-situ work made out of folded paper representing a bomb, suggesting a shelling inside the exhibition space. The fragility of the paper and its careful folds creates a tension with violence - the brutality and recklessness of the weapon, as well as to the hyper-sexualisation and weaponising of femininity. 

Marie Gyger’s work is distinguished by an elegance and formal refinement which functions as a veil. She works in a standardised manner as if in a small factory, gently folding under the tradition of Origami. The procedure is based on Euclidean rules that allow to reflect upon the world in a very small scale, as in a child’s game. Each form is measured against the paper from which it emerges within the space that is allotted to it. At first view, their delicate appearance wards off evidence of the anxiety-inducing traits of everyday life, while a contained yet smouldering critical charge lies beneath.

Gyger is a 2023 finalist of the Swiss Art Awards on view from June 12 to 18 at Messe Basel, Hall 1.1 - Entrance Isteinerstrasse, Gate 107.

Chris Kauffmann

Times of Doing Anything for Everything, 2023 exemplifies how Kauffmann uses the historical languages of abstraction as neutral backgrounds for the layers on top. The foregrounds of his paintings usually show printed collages with self-portraits or friends in various situations composed with misleading randomness. In this work we see a printed filmstrip containing extracts of a preexisting video work in which the artist is filmed (this video work is screened in the program Kino Süd during Basel Social Club). The artist questions the nature of identity and the role of art in shaping our sense of self.

Through painting, collages and sculptures, Chris Kauffmann provides space for a modest figure (often represented in self-portrait form) whose hidden talents and abilities can finally shine. The naively edited or vulnerably painted bodies evoke a sense of importance, combined with the awkward and shy way these portraits are viewed. Kauffmann’s playful game of revealing and hiding behind the non-functional objects, the painting gesture, and the main characters further emphasizes the complexity and fluidity of the notion of persona in contemporary society.