Art Basel has been described as the ‘Olympics of the Art World’. Over 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa show the work of more than 4,000 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars.

The show’s individual sectors represent every artistic medium: paintings, sculpture, installations, videos, multiples, prints, photography, and performance. Each day offers a full program of events, including symposiums, films, and artist talks. Further afield, exhibitions and events are offered by cultural institutions in Basel and the surrounding area, creating an exciting, region-wide art week.

For ‘14 Rooms‘ curators Klaus Biesenbach and Hans Ulrich Obrist invited international artists to each activate a room, exploring the relationship between space, time and physicality with an artwork whose ‘material’ is the human being. Giving visitors an insight into a more performative and interactive practice, visitors will encounter a new situation within each of the 14 rooms, engaging in a diverse series of immersive and intimate experiences. ‘14 Rooms‘ will feature works by artists including Marina Abramović, Allora and Calzadilla, Ed Atkins, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Damien Hirst, Joan Jonas, Laura Lima, Bruce Nauman, Otobong Nkanga, Roman Ondák, Yoko Ono, Tino Sehgal, Santiago Sierra, and Xu Zhen.
Additionally, two more works by Jordan Wolfson and John Baldessari are featured around the spectacular architectural environment conceived by Herzog & de Meuron – one acting as an epilogue, the other as archival documentation. Both challenge the very notions of live art and the human experience as set out for ‘14 Rooms‘.

Marina Abramović

Born 1946, Belgrade.
Lives in New York.

The performer, exposed, nude, and with her arms extended, sits on a bicycle seat placed high up on the wall. She is illuminated in bright light and appears before the viewer to be floating in suspended animation.

photo 14rooms.net

Damien Hirst

Born 1965, Bristol.
Lives in London, Devon, and Gloucestershire.

The installation consists of seated identical twins positioned in front of a pair of spot paintings, applied directly onto the wall behind. The work’s title changes according to the names of the participating twins: when first exhibited in 1992 it was variously subtitled “Marianne, Hildegard” and “Ingo, Torsten”.

photo 14rooms.net

Allora and Calzadilla

Jennifer Allora: Born 1974, Pennsylvania.
Lives in San Juan.

Guillermo Calzadilla: Born 1971, Havana.
Lives in San Juan.

A group of dancers is lined up from wall to wall, blocking the visitor’s way. Their movements are based on political protests, military marches and chorus lines, amongst others. The line will slowly rotate, obliging the public to move from one side of the room to the other as if passing through a revolving door.

photo 14rooms.net

Epilogue -
Jordan Wolfson

Born 1980, in New York.
Lives in New York and Los Angeles.

An animatronic dancer moves lasciviously in front of a large mirror. She tries to catch the eye of the spectator while at the same time watching itself, much in the way that viewers are confronted with their own mirror images.

photo 14rooms.net

Joan Jonas

Born 1936, New York City.
Lives in New York City.

The performer observes and examines her own naked body with a small, round hand-held mirror. The mirror serves as a symbol of self-portraiture but also as a device of fragmentation, reflecting parts of the body but not the whole.

photo 14rooms.net

Laura Lima

Born 1971, Minas Gerais.
Lives in Rio de Janeiro.

In this room, the height of the ceiling is only forty-five centimeters. At the back of the room a physically disabled person lies on the ground, next to a single lamp. The viewer must crouch or lie down to see the piece.

photo 14rooms.net

Xu Zhen

Born 1977, Shanghai.
Lives in Shanghai.

A person floats mysteriously in mid-air, frozen in time and space as if defying the constraints of physics. The work engages with the notions of the body as material and the materiality of the body, testing the limits of physical and cognitive possibilities as we try to comprehend what we see.

photo rytz.de

more at http://www.14rooms.net

via artbasel.com and 14rooms.net