The exhibition “You ask the time and I see the world” at Villa Renata presents four Atelier Mondial resident artists: Kara Springer, Ivette Olmedo, Grant Jurius and Sandeep TK. The excitement over the fact that they come from geographically and culturally different parts of the world and meet in Basel to make art, is certainly not yet a reason to mount an joint exhibition – or rather four solo exhibitions. Instead, it is way more interesting than that: there exists a proverbial thread that runs through the exhibition. Local networks and collective knowledge, cultural and social responsibility, shared colonial and intersectional histories run through the artistic practice of each one of the artists. It is these systems in which the four artists move with ease, independent from each other. What at first glance looks like four individual positions unravels upon closer inspection to a fabric of collective exchange. How do we orient ourselves in a world beset by seemingly insoluble problems and catastrophes? What can we do as individuals? The exhibition does not pretend to provide answers to these questions. Instead, it aims to connect four different positions rooted in their specific cultural discourses. The exhibition’s supertitle “You ask the time and I see the world” stands for the fact that we cannot give global answers. The works of the four artists give reason to concretize the questions in their respective artistic autonomy. The artists work in different areas. For the exhibition, Grant Jurius employs painting and sound, Kara Springer works in her in situ installation with photography and text, Sandeep TK focuses on text, photography and time-based media, while Ivette Olmedo bridges the gap between craft and art with paper and textile. All artists share a reflection upon parameters of change – ostentatious, provocative and subtle. Communication channels are opened – politically, historically and aesthetically – and discourse is sought. Here, the journey is the reward. As the exhibition does not offer to solve problems and provide answers to urgent questions, it nevertheless sets itself the goal of opening communication channels.
Curator and Texts: Isabel Balzer
Venue: Villa Renata, Socinstrasse 16, 4051 Basel
Opening: Friday, 5th of August , 18.00–21.00
Exhibition: 06.08.–04.09.2022
Opening hours: Fridays (16.00–20.00),
Saturdays and Sundays (13.00–17.00)
Kunsttage Basel: 01.–04.09.2022,
Thursday (18.00–22.00), Friday to Sunday (10.00–18.00)
