Video art is more than just a series of zeros and ones on a hard drive, waiting to be summoned into existence. The physical space in which you view time-based videos, movies, or other media is an essential part of the experience.
“Every artist who starts working on a work of art based on film or video always has this notion of space in mind,” says Isabel Friedli, the curator of Schaulager’s new exhibition. out of the box. The work cannot exist without the room in which it is presented, and for the most part these spaces are carefully controlled by the artist to meet the specifications of the work. “Created to measure, these works are singular, a bit like a custom-made garment”, as the text of the exhibition says.
out of the box presents these “boxes”, showing the works of about twenty artists through the large spaces of the Schaulager: large boxes, small boxes, some reaching the ceiling. Some works have been reconfigured by the artists for this new context. For example, the audiovisual installation by Anri Sala Ravel Ravel was presented for the first time at the 2013 Venice Biennale in a soundproof space six meters high. Even the Schaulager’s hangar-like rooms could not accommodate his presentation, so Sala created a new version of the work for the exhibition.
Lidén’s video installation Warm-up: Hermitage Museum Theater (2014)
Photo: Tom Bisig, Basel; © Klara Lidén
Space redefined
“We have really empty spaces, which we can define for each exhibition we do, which is great, but at the same time it’s also a bit of a challenge because we really have to redefine the architecture for each exhibition we do. “, Friedli says. This is the first show to be held at the Schaulager since its Bruce Nauman retrospective in 2018.
Alongside the time media are sculptural works and installations that also fit the theme, including one of Monika Sosnowska’s crumpled metal boxes crammed into a corner of the building “as if by a giant” and the banana building sculptures by Jean-Frédéric Schnyder. boxes. There will be three works by Tacita Dean in different media from her sets for the Royal Ballet’s 2021 production of Dante divine comedy. Other artists include Thomas Demand, Peter Fischli, Katharina Fritsch, Rodney Graham, Dayanita Singh and Dieter Roth. (Roth lived and worked in Basel and was the subject of Schaulager’s first retrospective; a new publication about him will be published alongside the exhibition.)
“It’s really a kind of pure experience that you can have at Schaulager”
Isabel Friedli, curator of the new Schaulager exhibitionout of the box
Tacita Dean’s Heaven (2021) Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation; gift of the artist and the Frith Street Gallery, London 2022. Permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel. Again: Courtesy of the artist and Frith Street Gallery; © Tacita Dean
Of course, the phrase “out of the box” has a deeper meaning for the Schaulager: it opened 20 years ago as one of the first examples of the type of open-air storage institution that has become hugely popular in recent years, literally showing art out of its packing cases. It houses the 90-year-old Emanuel Hoffmann collection, and when the mostly contemporary works are not on loan – they are regularly exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Basel – they are installed in the Schaulager, remaining in view of visitors and researchers. As many works use unconventional materials, this also makes it easy to monitor and preserve them.
The Hoffmann Collection has been acquiring temporal media works “ever since this type of art has existed,” says Freidli, but the pace has picked up in recent years.
Still in boxes
However, the difficulty of showing these works on an ongoing basis has meant that many have remained “in their boxes”. This is an obstacle that the institution hopes to overcome with a brand new extension, which will be dedicated to multimedia works. This new building is still in the early stages of planning – like the current building by veteran museum architects Herzog and de Meuron, its shape will be shaped by the needs of the art it houses.
As new museums, including the Depot in Rotterdam and the V&A East in London, embrace the open storage model, what have the Schaulager’s 20 years of experience taught them about the benefits? “People are always so amazed and surprised to see works in warehouses,” says Friedli. “The works are installed as if they were in an exhibition, but there is no given context. People can really concentrate on a work, look at it, contemplate it and experience it in a different situation. It’s really a kind of pure experience that you can have at Schaulager.
• Out of the Box: 20 years of Schaulager, Schaulager, Basel, until November 19
