This year’s edition of Encounters, curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor, shows participatory artworks that transcend the art fair booth.
Art Basel in Hong Kong’s Encounters sector, dedicated to presenting large-scale sculptures and installations by leading artists from around the world is back. The sector includes original and immersive works. Subjects range from “soft architecture”, large-scale kitchenware to kinetic sculpture.
Curated for the fourth consecutive year by Alexie Glass-Kantor and supported by MGM Resorts Art and Culture, the 2018 edition features 12 monumental works displayed in prominent locations throughout the exhibition halls.
Among the highlights, Ulla von Brandenburg’s 7 Curtains, presented by Pilar Corrias and Meyer Riegger, explores how stories and rituals of the past constitute present societies. Viewers are invited to participate in her temporary ‘soft’ architecture, by walking through large painted bamboo curtains that materialize their movements.
Presented by Arario Gallery, Subodh Gupta’s ‘Start. Stop’ uses a slow-moving sushi belt carrying tiffin boxes and pots to evoke contemplation of how food has traveled in time, and the fate of the ‘dabbawallas’ who push wheelbarrows laden with home-cooked lunches for office workers in a rapidly-changing urban environment.
Meanwhile, Yavuz Gallery presents Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan’s ongoing exploration of the complex realities facing contemporary agrarian societies in Asia. Their Left Wing Project Belok Kiri Jalan Terus, is an immense, site-specific installation featuring seven, wing-like kinetic sculptures made from hand-forged sickles hung from the ceiling.
-Compiled by Mariam Nihal
