Angelica Mesiti
Reverb

Angelica Mesiti
Reverb

18 March – 30 August 2026

In an era shaped by digital media, Reverb draws attention to physical forms of human communication. The exhibition brings together five video works by the Australian, Paris based artist Angelica Mesiti who combines different disciplines in poetic ways. The works illustrate the enchantment of the everyday and show how cultural traditions, rituals, music and sounds shape identity and foster community.

Angelica Mesiti (born 1976) works at the interface of performance, sound and video. Her film works and spatial installations offer an experience of performative practices: sound, movement and gesture serve as forms of nonverbal communication and generate resonances between people, places and cultural practices. In this way, the exhibition title refers to reverberation not only as an acoustic phenomenon – in the same way as sound travels and echoes, ideas and information, too, are carried across space and time, continuing to make an impact.

In her most recent work, the 7-channel video installation The Rites of When (2024), Mesiti rethinks social rituals, taking as her point of departure old customs that follow nature and the cycle of the seasons. Such customs are often closely linked with knowledge of the stars and the movements of sun and moon that once informed the calendars of both agricultural activities and spiritual practices. The work is divided into two acts dedicated to the winter and summer solstices, using a combination of choreographies, vocal choirs, collective forms of physical sound production and electronic sounds to inquire into the future role of rituals. In view of the ecological uncertainty caused by climate change and human impacts on the environment, and the societal shift that is causing more and more people to live in cities and stay indoors, The Rites of When takes a sensory approach to explore new ways to connect.

A Hundred Years (2020) is a quiet meditation on the traces left by war on landscapes and on memory. On the battlefields of the Somme, the film follows the rhythm of the seasons – from winter to spring, summer and autumn. A century after World War I, nature has reclaimed the land, but craters, trenches and a single surviving tree remain as memorials. The scene centres on a musician walking in endless circles while playing a requiem for the fallen on a tin whistle. Free of heroism or nationalism, Mesiti draws attention to the ecological consequences of warfare, to cultural memory, and to the staying power of renewal and revival.

Sidereal (2024) shows a performance by two dancers, suspended from above, who slowly revolve around one another. Between gravity and weightlessness, their choreography recalls the movement of heavenly bodies or satellites, their interaction sometimes resembling a struggle, sometimes playful harmony. The work refers to sidereal time, an astronomical timescale based on the earth’s rotation in relation to specific stars rather than to our Sun. A background in crepuscular colours echoing the changing light over the course of a day, plus a minimal sound composition, create a sensory space between the worldly and the cosmic.

The three-part video installation Relay League (2017) is based on the final message sent in Morse code by the French Navy in 1997, marking its transition to digital communications. In the first video, a percussionist translates the sequence of dots and dashes into a drum piece. This then forms the basis for a choreography with a single dancer in the second part. In the third video, a dancer conveys the sequence of moves to her visually impaired partner by touch and guided gestures. In this way, the work develops a poetic reflection on the ways communications are changing and stresses the importance of direct physical contact in an era when machine codes are being constantly developed and renewed.

Prepared Piano for Movers (Haussmann) (2012) shows two movers in Paris carrying a grand piano up six flights of stairs. The soundtrack is a chance-based composition – inspired by John Cage, the piano was prepared by placing objects inside the instrument that create unpredictable percussive sounds with every movement. Converging with the men’s laborious efforts, this produces a musical score that reveals the grace of everyday events.

The exhibition is curated by Tabea Panizzi.
Assistance: Maya Jung

Biography Angelica Mesiti

Portrait Angelica Mesiti, photo: Josh Raymond

Angelica Mesiti (b. 1976) is of Australian origin and currently lives and works in Paris. Her multi-channel sound, performance and video installations have been internationally recognised through major exhibitions and significant commissions. In 2019, she represented Australia at the 58th Venice Biennale with the three-channel video installation ASSEMBLY, exploring notions of plurality and non-linguistic communication that have become the hallmark of her work. In 2024 she presented The Rites of When, a major commission for the TANK at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Mesiti's work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Art Sonje Centre, Seoul; Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal; The National Gallery of Australia; Arter, Istanbul; Arnolfini Contemporary Art Centre, Bristol; The Banff Centre, Canada; Basis, Frankfurt; and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, amongst others.

In addition to Venice, Mesiti has participated in biennales including Singapore (2026), Boras (2021), Busan (2020), Adelaide (2018), Sydney (2014), Istanbul (2013), Sharjah (2013), Kochi-Muziris (2012), and the Aichi (2013) and Auckland (2013) triennials. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and screenings at institutions worldwide including The Highline, New York; The Barbican Centre; The Tate Modern; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Nam June Paik Art Centre; MAXXI, Rome; MONA, Hobart; the MEP, Paris; Videobrasil, São Paulo; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; ARoS Kunstmuseum; Tokyo Photographic Museum; Kadist Centre, Paris and San Francisco.

Angelica Mesiti has been a studio professor at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris since 2019.

Event programme:

Curator’s Tour
>> 19.03.2026, 7 pm
With the artist and the curator, in English
Free admission, no booking required

Special | Guided Tour & Dance Extra Muros
Angelica Mesiti meets Filipe Lourenço

>> 19.04.2026, 3 pm
Guided tour with the artist and curator: Dance in Mesiti’s work (EN)
Free admission with Tanzhaus ticket

>> 19.04.2026, 5 pm: Compagnie Filipe Lourenço: CHEB
An encounter between traditional dances of the Maghreb and contemporary soundscapes from pop, rock, funk and electro.
Location: Tanzhaus Basel, Admission: 15/25/35 CHF

Tanzfest | Family programme
WunderWesen
>> 07.05. and 08.05.2026, 4 pm, at Solitude Park
Interactive dance and music journey for children age 3 and up and families as part of the Tanzfest Region Basel.
Free admission, no booking required

Dance | Physical Introduction
Kaserne LAB Artists introduce the exhibition through dance
>> 24.05.2026, 3 pm (with Alma Toaspern)
>> 26.07.2026, 3 pm (with Natascha Moschini)
Museum admission, no booking required

Dance | Extra Muros
Declan Whitaker. Away with the Faeries
>> 27.–31.05.2026, 8 pm, Sunday 4 pm
Irish folklore and queer identity: Whitaker questions Irish Dance between homage and rebellion.
Location: Kaserne Basel, Admission: 15/25/35 CHF

Family Sunday
>> 07.06.2026, 11:30 am – 5 pm
Drop-in workshops. Family Sundays are inclusive events

Inclusive | Performance
Stilllaut
>> 23.08.2026, 3 pm
Seeing with the ears, hearing with the eyes – a musical-dance performance with Lua Leirner and Christian Neff.
Museum admission, no booking required

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Angelica Mesiti
Reverb