26-27 January 2018 - Symposium

Live performances:

 

19 September 2017 - Vernissage - Massimo Furlan, Katja Schenker, Ioannis Mandafounis & Aoife McAtamney, Gianni Motti
 

13-14 October 2017 - San Keller
 

15 October 2017 - Christoph Rütimann, Gregory Stauffer, Neopost Foofwa (Jonathan O'Hear & Timothy O'Hear & Martin Rautenstrauch)

18 November 2017 - Anne Rochat & Laurent Bruttin, Roman Signer

19 November 2017 - François Gremaud & Pierre Mifsud

2 December 2017 - Marius Schaffter & Jêrome Stünzi, Gisela Hochuli, Yan Duyvendak, Martina-Sofie Wildberger

19 January 2018 - Basel Museums Night

25 January 2018 - John M Armleder & Christian Marclay

26 January 2018 - Christian Marclay

Heinrich LüberVolute will be activated frequently throughout the exhibition.
 

Jean Tinguely, Study for an End of the World, N° 2, 1962 Filmstill aus “David Brinkley’s Journal”, NBC, 1962 © LIFE Magazine; Foto: Life Magazine

"60 YEARS OF PERFORMANCE ART IN SWITZERLAND“

Performance has become the medium of choice for numerous Swiss artists in disciplines as varied as dance, theatre, sculpture, and the live arts. Museum Tinguely will be presenting its own performance art panorama in “60 Years of Performance Art in Switzerland”, which will present more than fifty different artists.
 

Museum Tinguely also invites visitors to share the experience of several live happenings and interdisciplinary events in the coming weeks. The focus will be on the incredible variety and topicality of performance art in all its many permutations, from Jean Tinguely’s first, self-destructive performances to the materially elusive works of Florence Jung. Museum Tinguely’s exhibition and performances programme is part of a multi-institutional celebration of Swiss Performance Art from 1960 to the present here in Basel. 
 

”60 YEARS OF PERFORMANCE ART IN SWITZERLAND“ explores more than five decades of performative art, taking as its starting point the 1960s, when pioneering performance artist Jean Tinguely realized his first self-destructive actions, notably Homage to New York (1960), the first self-destructive artwork in history that took place in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and propelled him practically overnight onto the international art scene, and Study for an End of the World No. 2 (1962), a sculptural assemblage that went up in smoke in the Nevada desert. Besides Tinguely, artists such as Urs Lüthi, Daniel Spoerri, and Anna Winteler exemplify the exhibition’s historical side, while Alexandra Bachzetsis, Florence Jung, San Keller, and Anne Rochat represent its more contemporary aspect. Visitors will encounter the creations of more than fifty artists in documents, photographs, videos, drawings, objects, and, of course, performances. Every month, artists will bring the exhibition to life by presenting both historical pieces and productions made specifically for this context. This exploration of Swiss performance art will culminate in the organisation of a two-day international symposium, conceived in collaboration with Kunsthalle Basel (26–27 January 2018) and will close with the outstanding performances of Christian Marclay and John M Armleder along with a new work by Marclay that references an artwork by Tinguely.
 

Guest curators are Jean-Paul Felley and Olivier Keaser of the Centre culturel Suisse Paris (CCS), in cooperation with co-curator Séverine Fromaigeat, Museum Tinguely.
 

The exhibition and performances programme of Museum Tinguely are part of the extensive institutional cooperation with Kaserne Basel and Kunsthalle Basel, in partnership with the Centre culturel suisse in Paris.
 

Find more information on this collaboration, the individual programs of the institutions, interviews and short dialogues with the artists on: www.performanceprocessbasel.ch

PerformanceProcess artists: John M Armleder & Christian Marclay, Alexandra Bachzetsis & Julia Born, the group Buren Mosset Parmentier Toroni), Heidi Bucher, Miriam Cahn, Luciano Castelli, Yan Duyvendak, Massimo Furlan, François Gremaud & Pierre Mifsud, Fabrice Gygi, Foofwa d'Imobilité, Eric Hattan, Thomas Hirschhorn, Gisela Hochuli, Florence Jung, San Keller, La Ribot, Heinrich Lüber, Urs Lüthi, Urs Lüthi & David Weiss & Willy Spiller, Ioannis Mandafounis & Aoife McAtamney, Manon, Christian Marclay, Muda Mathis & Sus Zwick, Dieter Meier, Tony Morgan, Olivier Mosset & Cristina Da Silva, Gianni Motti, Neopost Foofwa (Foofwa d’Imobilité / Jonathan O'Hear & Timothy O'Hear & Martin Rautenstrauch), Guillaume Pilet, Peter Regli, Anne Rochat & Laurent Bruttin, Christoph Rütimann, Marius Schaffter & Jérôme Stünzi, Katja Schenker, Roman Signer, Daniel Spoerri, Gregory Stauffer, Jean Tinguely, Aldo Walker, Martina-Sofie Wildberger, Anna Winteler

Artists

Jean Tinguely, Homage to New York, 1960; Photo: The New York Times / Photographer unknown

Jean Tinguely, Study for an End of the World, N° 2, 1962/ Film still of “David Brinkley’s Journal”, NBC, 1962/© LIFE Magazine; Photo: Life Magazine

Dieter Meier, Gehen, 1970/ Datasound AG, Zürich, Switzerland/ © 2017 Courtesy Dieter Meier

Manon, Manon Presents Man, 1976/ Manon, Zurich, Switzerland/ © 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich

Luciano Castelli, The Bitch and her Dog, 1981/ Luciano Castelli, Zurich, Switzerland/ © 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich

Gianni Motti, The Big Illusion-Couteaux, 1994 (in collaboration with illusionist Mister RG)/ Gallery Perrotin, Paris, France/ © 2017 Courtesy Gallery Perrotin, Paris

Ioannis Mandafounis & Aoife McAtamney, One One One, 2015/ © Ioannis Mandafounis & Aoife McAtamney; Photo: Raymond Gruaz

Ioannis Mandafounis & Aoife McAtamney, One One One, 2015/ © Ioannis Mandafounis & Aoife McAtamney; Foto: Raymond Gruaz

Urs Lüthi, David Weiss & Willy Spiller, Sketches, portfolio, 1970 Fotografie Portfolio Urs Lüthi, David Weiss & Willy Spiller © 2017 Courtesy of the artists

The breadth and diversity of Swiss performance art from 1960 to the present is being celebrated in Basel through an exceptional institutional collaboration between Museum Tinguely, Kaserne Basel, and Kunsthalle Basel in partnership with Centre culturel suisse Paris. Together these institutions illuminate performative practices in Switzerland—looking back, for instance, to when Jean Tinguely blew up the Basel Carnival Committee in a performative action in 1974, and looking forward, with new performances by established and emerging artists.
 

Spanning five months, from 20 September 2017 to 18 February 2018, this project has roots in the multidisciplinary exhibition and festival PerformanceProcess held in 2015 at the Centre culturel suisse in Paris. Building upon and expanding that effort, the Basel institutions join forces to examine this powerful medium, each from a distinct perspective.
 

60 YEARS OF PERFORMANCE ART IN SWITZERLAND

Museum Tinguely

20 September 2017–28 January 2018

Opening 19 September 2018, 6.30 pm

 

PERFORMING CHOREOGRAPHIES

Kaserne Basel

26 September–1 October 2017

 

NEW SWISS PERFORMANCE NOW

Kunsthalle Basel

19 January 2018–18 February 2018

Opening Thursday, 18 January 2018, 7 pm


A cooperation between Museum Tinguely, Kaserne Basel and Kunsthalle Basel, in partnership with Centre culturel suisse Paris
Supported by: Division of Cultural Affairs, Canton Basel-Stadt