{"id":85107,"date":"2026-06-16T07:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/85107\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T07:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:42:12","slug":"art-basel-diary-the-carnival-comes-to-town-art-of-the-algorithm-and-mums-the-word-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/85107\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Basel Diary: the carnival comes to town, art of the algorithm and Mum’s the word – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reverse recycling for African textiles<\/p>\n

It\u2019s carnival time over at the Volta fair where the Lisbon-based Perve Galeria is showing Flowing Upstream, an exuberant installation made from discarded costumes worn by revellers at West Africa\u2019s largest carnival\u2014the Ankos Masquerade in Ghana. <\/p>\n

The project, drawing on recycled carnival clothing, is the brainchild of the German artist Martin W\u00f6llenstein. \u201cRather than preserving them as relics or documents, Martin dismantled and transformed the costumes into new textile structures,\u201d says Carlos Cabral Nunes, the director of Perve Galeria. <\/p>\n

The result is an \u201cimmersive architectural maze\u201d that will no doubt be a fair talking point. W\u00f6llenstein highlights that \u201cby transporting discarded carnival costumes from Ghana to Basel via the Rhine, the project reverses the dominant direction of textile waste flows between the two continents.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cLet the unpredictable emerge\u201d: William Mapan\u2019s drawing machine hard at work Lucas Ziegler<\/p>\n

Fairgoers help machine to get creative<\/p>\n

As part of the Zero 10 digital art section at Art Basel the artist William Mapan is presenting Paysages Plausibles: Dances on Shadows, featuring a live installation whereby visitors generate a unique composition on the fair floor via an algorithm devised by Mapan. <\/p>\n

Hugo Pouchard, a cultural strategist who works with Mapan, describes the method behind the machinery: \u201cdesign the rules, then let the unpredictable emerge,\u201d he says. Pouchard adds: \u201cWilliam establishes the system and its parameters, but the algorithm generates works, iterations of which William has no control, letting unexpected forms and compositions emerge.\u201d Follow the algorithm, kids.<\/p>\n

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Phantom pregnancy: Erin Calla Watson\u2019s video Maternity features models sporting prosthetic bellies Courtesy of the artist and Ehrlich Steinberg, Los Angeles<\/p>\n

Motherhood, but not as we know it<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Liste art fair in Basel will encounter a very different take on childbearing thanks to the Los Angeles-based artist Erin Calla Watson. Her new video Maternity features \u201cfound clips of female models wearing prosthetic pregnancy bellies for fast-fashion e-commerce websites\u201d, says a statement from Ehrlich Steinberg gallery. <\/p>\n

Watson tells us that her subtitles on the video are inspired by rather unusual reference points. \u201cMalina [a novel by Ingeborg Bachmann] explores the relationship between a female writer and two men [and explores] fragmentation and desire. I\u2019m also interested in these community subcultures, such as the concept of the \u2018sad-boy\u2019, which proliferated in the early internet era and represented intense emotional identification.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hidden talents: a performer in Goshka Macuga\u2019s Exhibition M: A Re-enactment Photo: Angus Mill; courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry gallery<\/p>\n

Artist\u2019s performance tells the story of museums<\/p>\n

The Unlimited section of Art Basel always features some head-spinning works, and this year is no exception. One of the more enigmatic pieces comes courtesy of the Turner Prize-nominated artist Goshka Macuga. Exhibition M: A Re-enactment is a live performance that creates a dialogue around the history and future of museums, according to a statement from Kate MacGarry gallery. The three characters in the piece include the French novelist Andr\u00e9 Malraux; the first director of New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art, Alfred H. Barr Jr.; and Macuga herself. A spokesperson adds that the work aims to collapse \u201ctemporal and institutional boundaries while framing the museum as a site of continual reinterpretation.\u201d Intriguing…<\/p>\n

Fair gives Switzerland a (population) boost<\/p>\n

The recent referendum, which asked Switzerland\u2019s citizens to limit the country\u2019s population to 10 million, is the talk of Basel. In the public vote held last weekend, nearly 55% of participants voted against and 45% voted for, with a turnout of 60% . The current population is 9.1 million, 27% of whom are not Swiss citizens. One curator at Basel airport pointed out though that \u201cthe number of art world people rolling up this week will probably tip the figure over 10 million\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reverse recycling for African textiles It\u2019s carnival time over at the Volta fair where the Lisbon-based Perve Galeria…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[43250,77,1937],"class_list":["post-85107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basel","tag-art-basel-2026","tag-basel","tag-diary"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116758665804175612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}