This year’s edition of Unlimited will consist of 71 large-scale projects, presented by galleries participating in the fair. Curated for the seventh consecutive year by Gianni Jetzer, Curator-at-Large at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., the sector will feature a wide range of presentations, from seminal pieces from the past to work created especially for Art Basel.
Ai Weiwei Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, 2015 © Ai Weiwei Courtesy the artist, Lisson Gallery and neugerriemschneider, Berlin
Renowned as well as emerging artists will participate, including: Matthew Barney, Yto Barrada, Daniel Buren, Horia Damian, Camille Henrot, Jenny Holzer, Mark Leckey, Lee Ufan, Inge Mahn, Lygia Pape, Jon Rafman, Michael Rakowitz, Nedko Solakov, Martine Syms, Barthélémy Toguo and Yu Hong.
Unlimited, Art Basel’s unique platform for large-scale projects, provides galleries with the opportunity to showcase installations, monumental sculptures, video projections, wall paintings, photographic series and performance art that transcend the traditional art-fair stand. For Unlimited in 2007, Daniel Buren
transformed the escalators leading to thupper floor of Hall 1 into a kinetic sculpture titled ‘Passage dela Couleur, 26 secondes et 14 centièmes’. The work was bought by Messe Schweiz and today forms an integral part of the exhibition hall. With Unlimited this year taking place on the upper floor of Hall 1, Buren’s work from 2007 will form part of the entrance area for this year’s edition.
Responding to this earlier work, Unlimited will open with Buren’s ‘Una cosa tira l’altra’, an aerial walkway decorated with stripes similar to those that have been used on the escalator in 2007. The extensive platform made up of scaffolding will create new ways to navigate the space, allowing visitors to view the surrounding works from unique and unexpected points of view.
Further highlights include Polly Apfelbaum’s strips of textile that are combined to form a colorfully woven painting; Rashid Johnson’s tropical enclave containing various unexpected elements from sculptures made with shea butter to video portraits; Katherine Bernhardt’s monumental painting with tropical birds, cuddly robots and cigarette stubs, which at once editorializes and summarizes modern culture and the artist herself; an interactive multimedia installation by Nedko Solakov comprising nine sofas in the shapes of the nine Chinese characters constituting the phrase ‘I miss Socialism, maybe’; and Yu Hong’s large-scale painting depicting a famous Chinese fable widely cited in both modern Chinese art history and Chinese Communist narratives. The work focuses on how the Socialist narrative still perseveres in Chinese society and explores the ways its ideology corresponds to the visual legacy of Soviet Socialist Realist heritage.
Full list of artists presented in Unlimited:
Ai Weiwei, Lisson Gallery, neugerriemschneider
Francis Alÿs, David Zwirner
Polly Apfelbaum, Frith Street Gallery
Uri Aran, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Sadie Coles HQ
Rodolfo Aricò, A arte Invernizzi
Arman, Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois
Matthew Barney, Sadie Coles HQ, Gladstone Gallery, Regen Projects
Yto Barrada, Pace Gallery
Robert Barry, Alfonso Artiaco, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Galerie Greta Meert,
Galleria Massimo Minini, Sfeir-Semler Gallery
Katherine Bernhardt, Canada, Xavier Hufkens
McArthur Binion, Massimo De Carlo, Lehmann Maupin
Barbara Bloom, Galerie Gisela Capitain
Carol Bove, David Zwirner
Frank Bowling, Alexander Gray Associates
Candice Breitz, Goodman Gallery, kaufmann repetto, KOW
Daniel Buren, Galleria Continua
Alberto Burri, Luxembourg & Dayan
Paul Chan, Greene Naftali
Bruce Conner, Paula Cooper Gallery
Horia Damian, Galeria Plan B
Edith Dekyndt, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Galerie Greta Meert
Lara Favaretto, Galleria Franco Noero
General Idea, Mai 36 Galerie, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Maureen Paley, Esther Schipper
Sam Gilliam, David Kordansky Gallery
Douglas Gordon, Gagosian, Galerie Eva Presenhuber
Dan Graham, Hauser & Wirth
Josep Grau-Garriga, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Salon 94
He Xiangyu, White Space Beijing
Camille Henrot, König Galerie, kamel mennour, Metro Pictures
Carmen Herrera, Lisson Gallery
Jim Hodges, Massimo De Carlo
Jenny Holzer, Sprüth Magers
Alfredo Jaar, Goodman Gallery, Galerie Lelong & Co., kamel mennour, Galerie Thomas
Schulte
Rashid Johnson, Hauser & Wirth
Jürgen Klauke, Galerie Thomas Zander
Guillermo Kuitca, Hauser & Wirth
Wolfgang Laib, Buchmann Galerie, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac,
Sperone Westwater
Mark Leckey, Gavin Brown’s enterprise
Lee Ufan, Pace Gallery
Richard Long, Lisson Gallery
Robert Longo, Metro Pictures, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
Ana Lupas, P420
Ibrahim Mahama, White Cube
Inge Mahn, Galerie Max Hetzler
Georges Mathieu, Applicat-Prazan
Richard Mosse, carlier gebauer, Jack Shainman Gallery
Olivier Mosset, Massimo De Carlo, galerie lange + pult
Sam Moyer, Sean Kelly
Yoko Ono, Galerie Lelong & Co.
Lygia Pape, Hauser & Wirth
Barbara Probst, Monica De Cardenas
Jon Rafman, Sprüth Magers
Michael Rakowitz, Barbara Wien
Paul Ramirez Jonas, Galeria Nara Roesler
James Rosenquist, Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art
Fred Sandback, David Zwirner
Sudarshan Shetty, Galerie Krinzinger, Templon
Nedko Solakov, Galleria Continua
Frances Stark, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Galerie Buchholz, greengrassi
Mikhael Subotzky & Patrick Waterhouse, Goodman Gallery
Martine Syms, Sadie Coles HQ
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Gavin Brown’s enterprise
Barthélémy Toguo, Galerie Lelong & Co.
Anne Truitt, Matthew Marks Gallery
James Turrell, Bernier/Eliades
Andra Ursuta, Massimo De Carlo, Galerie Eva Presenhuber
Kostis Velonis, Kalfayan Galleries
Claude Viallat, Templon
Cerith Wyn Evans, White Cube
José Yaque, Galleria Continua
Yu Hong, Long March Space
On Sunday, June 17 from 2pm to 3pm curator Gianni Jetzer will moderate an artist talk
as part of the Conversations program + a limited-edition catalog, published by Hatje Cantz, will accompany Unlimited, including descriptive texts and images of each artwork.
