Erik Van Lieshout: Art Blasé: Art Basel Parcours

Erik van Lieshout’s film Art Blasé, 2020, will be projected in a uniquely constructed booth—appointed with cutouts and carpet added by the artist—at the main entrance of Unternehmen Mitte coffee house.

In 2019 the artist was invited to be part of a special curated exhibition to take place in 2020, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Art Basel. Van Lieshout flew to Hong Kong in March of 2019 to start planning with the curators. One of them, Kaspar Koenig, suggested that he begin by going on a cruise, so the artist made his maiden voyage on the Holland-America line’s New Statendam ship in the summer of 2019, sailing up the coast of Norway for two weeks. The cruise made sense as a parallel to art fairs. The edit of the film was finished in February of 2020, and van Lieshout watched the news unfolding slowly...and then that cruise ships were one of the first places of corona infections. He immediately revisited the film footage and began shooting more in his studio. The resulting footage became a separate film, Art Blasé, a companion to Art Basel, 2020. Art Basel, 2020, specifically created for the 50th Anniversary exhibition, was never shown at the fair due to postponements and cancellations. Art Blasé, 2020, will be.

In collaboration with Maureen Paley, Galerie Krinzinger, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, and Annet Gelink Gallery.