Daniel Knorr: Led R. Nanirok / Kunsthalle Basel / Interview, part 1/2 and part 2/2

Part 1/2
See it here

Currently, Kunsthalle Basel in Basel / Switzerland presents a huge solo show entitled with works by the artist Daniel Knorr. The exhibition entitled Daniel Knorr: Led R. Nanirok is Daniel Knorr’s most ambitious project to date. Led R. Nanirok is an anagram of the artist’s name. Daniel Knorr designed a series of works that connect all five galleries of the ground floor of the building.

Some pieces of the show have been produced on site, while some have been previously shown in other contexts. There’s an interactive LED wall that extends over 30 meters and works like mirror, a single LED that glows red to show when the artist is awake, a “snowman” brandishing a palm leaf, a gathering of scarecrows dressed in haute couture, the interactive digital animation Validate me that locates each visitor of the Kunsthalle and displays them on screens placed in each room; and spectacles produced from pieces of broken glass.

Daniel Knorr was born in 1968 in Bucharest, Romania, and he currently lives in Berlin. Daniel Knorr’s solo exhibitions include Scherben bringen Glück at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; The way politics influences art and vice versa, at the Fondazione March, Padova (both 2008); the Romanian Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennial (2005), and The Project, New York (2002).

On the occasion of the opening of Daniel Knorr’s exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel, Olga Stefan spoke with Daniel Knorr about his work.

Daniel Knorr: Led R. Nanirok at Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland. Daniel Knorr in conversation with Olga Stefan on the occasion of the opening reception on September 19, 2009. Part 1/2. The exhibition runs until November 15, 2009.

Part 2/2
See it Here

In the second part of the conversation with Olga Stefan, Daniel Knorr talks specifically about two of his works in the show Led R. Nanirok at Kunsthalle Basel: the spectacles produced from pieces of broken glass, and the large LED wall that welcomes the visitor in the first gallery of the Kunsthalle.

Daniel Knorr’s solo show at Kunsthalle Basel is accompanied by the book Daniel Knorr: Led R. Nanirok. It is arranged and designed by Daniel Knorr and Ludovic Balland. On the occasion of the show at Kunsthalle Basel, Daniel Knorr’s artist book Cudesch d’artist will be published in Rumantsch, one of the four official languages of Switzerland. Various objects that had no value were picked up from the streets of Basel and Zurich by Daniel Knorr and his collaborators and pressed flat between the pages of the book with an industrial 20-ton press.

CHIHARU SHIOTA – A LONG DAY

published in October 2009 Flash Art

Rotwand Gallery
Zurich
August 27-October 10, 2009

Born in Japan, and currently living and working in Berlin, Chiharu Shiota makes her debut in Zurich with her web-like and haunting installation, A Long Day. She transforms the gallery space, already small and intimate, into a confining yet poetic material depiction of her innermost fears, anxieties, and hopes. A lonely table and chair, surrounded by books and other evidence of a recent human presence, become the centerpiece in a thick, oppressive entanglement of black strings connecting it to thousands of points on the walls, ceiling and floor.

By creating a cocoon-like atmosphere and an abridged space, Shiota is able to communicate her existential angst, but also highlight the connection of the mind and spirit with the material world. The table and chair surrounded by books and paper, maybe representing the human impulse and desire to create, are connected to the empty space by thousands of black strings. They literally fill the void, pregnant with the artist’s ambitions, with a physical manifestation of creative intent. Walking into the gallery, one gets overwhelmed by the sensation of loneliness, alienation, and solitude, compounded by the confining planes created by the network. And yet, light penetrates through these spaces, also giving the impression of a lace-like and delicate fabrication, which can provide some solace and calm during the act of creating, and living.

Sarah Cain: Double Future / Seiler + Mosseri-Marlio Galerie / Interview

Fun with Vernissage TV

Currently, Seiler + Moseri-Marlio Galerie in Zurich, Switzerland, presents the first solo-show of Los Angeles based artist Sarah Cain. The exhibition, titled “Double Future“, is her first solo show in Europe.

In this conversation with Olga Stefan, Sarah Cain talks about her background and the works she presents at the exhibition.

Sarah Cain participated in the 2008 California Biennial with a site-specific installation at the Orange County Museum of Art and the off-site project Midnight Mission at Five Thirty Three Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles. She was awarded the SECA Art Award 2006,
which was accompanied by an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art. She will have a solo project with Sara Meltzer Gallery at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2009.

Sarah Cain: Double Future at Seiler + Mosseri-Marlio Galerie in Zurich, Switzerland. Opening reception and interview, August 27, 2009.