von Bartha presents Bernar Venet at Parcours during Art Basel 2016

Part of Art Basel’s programming, Parcours will be open to the public from 13 to 19 June, 2016.

 

Von Bartha is the first Basel-based gallery to participate in Parcours, a sector of Art Basel that showcases site-specific sculptures and interventions within the city. The presentation of Venet’s arresting site-specific sculpture will be located by the iconic River Rhine. Venet has created numerous sculptural variations of Effondrement since the 1990s. For this latest creation, the artist continues his play with instability and equilibrium, amassing a heap of Cor-ten steel arcs nestled between, beside, on top and under one another. The structure towers over the viewer, transforming their experience of the surrounding space.

 

Born in 1941 in Château-Arnoux, France, Venet currently lives and works in Le Muy. The artist began his career working in painting, drawing and photography. In the 1970s, he devoted himself to teaching art theory at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he developed a preoccupation with physics and mathematics. These theoretical interests catalyze his creative work, informing his sculptural experimentation with gravity and the interaction of objects.

 

This year’s edition is curated by Samuel Leuenberger of SALTS in Birsfelden, Switzerland, and takes on the theme of the human body and its myriad social, political and environmental relations through 19 site-specific works by both emerging and internationally established artists. The works will be scattered around the city, including the Basel’s landmark cathedral and an underground tunnel below the Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois.

 

Other artists featured in Parcours include Andrew Dadson, Jim Dine, Alfredo Jaar, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Eva Koťátková, Tracey Rose, and Lawrence Weiner, among others. The programming will culminate in Parcours Night on 18 June, with a range of special performances and screenings.

 

Venet’s Effondrement:Arcs is located at Rittergasse 17, 4051, Basel. von Bartha’s Art Basel booth is located at H13.