Esther Kläs in
Art Basel | Parcours
20—26 September 2021
Basel Historical Museum
Curated by Samuel Leuenberger, Art Basel | Parcours encompasses site-specific sculpture, interventions and performances by international artists that engage with the Basel City center.
Esther Kläs will exhibit L+ (2020), a large, L-shaped white block made of a water based resin floats above the ground, opposite a cast aluminium shape. Both are suspended from the ceiling by thin threads. The elements hover directly above a soft, narrow rug. The abstract, modernist sculptural elements are presented in a careful balance of weight and density, scale and volume, creating opposing as much as convergent effects. Through their peculiar physicality, they retain a uniquely organic and warm appearance. Rather than trying to hide it, they carry the imprint of their making on their surfaces. The relationship between the human body and the presence of the sculptures in the room is central to Kläs’ work. What looks like a large, overbearing gesture is actually an intimate, investigative confrontation.
Alongside the installation, Kläs will present DE-COR (window), a new performance made with Gustavo Gomes that contemplates the experience of the internal and the external, being that a body, a relationship, or a place.
Performance schedule:
20, 22 and 24 September at 2pm
25 September at 4pm
