Purview: Art Basel, Rick Owens In Paris & More
By Something CuratedExploring further afield, Something Curated looks beyond London in this new series highlighting global personalities shaping contemporary culture. In June’s edition, we take a closer look at Gianni Jetzer’s Unlimited at Art Basel, highlights from Paris Fashion Week, Rem Koolhaas’s 2016 documentary, a New York eatery from the co-founder of Noma, and more.
Unlimited at Art Basel, Basel || Gianni Jetzer
This year, Art Basel brought over 4,000 artists and 291 galleries from around the globe together in Basel, Switzerland, running from 15–18 June. Curated by New York-based Gianni Jetzer, Unlimited is Art Basel’s pioneering exhibition platform for projects that transcend the classical art-show stand, including massive sculptures and paintings, video projections, large-scale installations, and live performances. A busy programme of talks and events took place each day in conjunction with the themes explored in the works.
Highlights include Anicka Yi’s seminal work, Skype Sweater, first shown at her 2010 show at 179 Canal, which explores bodily functions and processes, featuring a giant “breathing” parachute. Doug Aitken’s Underwater Pavilions shows a detailed video display of his huge, underwater geometric installation of three mirror sculptures that float off the coast of Santa Catalina Island. Meanwhile, Rob Pruitt’s Official Art World/Celebrity Look-Alikes presents imaginative pairings of artists and their celebrity counterparts, offering one of the most entertaining works at Basel this year.
Balenciaga & Rick Owens at Paris Fashion Week, Paris || Demna Gvasalia & Rick Owens
Demna Gvasalia has drastically reconfigured Balenciaga’s image since joining the French house, and this season’s runway show is no exception. The creative director opted to stage his menswear show in the lush greenery of a woodland for S/S18. In contrast with his previous collection’s location, a corporate office set, the Bois de Boulogne park provided an idyllic backdrop for the designer to showcase his latest offering. A highlight, aside from the norm-core, dad-inspired clothing, was the show’s inspired casting.
Now well-known for his unusual choices in models, Gvasalia cast real-life families to walk down the runway, explaining: “I thought it was so beautiful to see a young man with a child and it’s so hopeful and so positive. There was this hopefulness actually that drove through the whole season, the kids represented that hope.” The collection itself is very much reminiscent of the ’90s, featuring an array of patterned button ups, chords, and denim outfits.
For his S/S18 show, Rick Owens had models walk on a complex scaffolding runway that was erected at the Palais de Tokyo. The designer’s men’s collection built on his signature neo-gothic aesthetic with a decidedly sophisticated and paired-back approach, with double-breasted suits and innovative shirting. The tailoring was boxy, the trousers baggy, and as for the footwear, Owens offered up his interpretations of the slouch boot, as well as speed-laced leather boots with chunky rubber soles.
Rem, Rotterdam & Los Angeles || Tomas Koolhaas
Among the roster of great Dutch architects sit a number of renowned practitioners, from Berlage to Van Berkel, but based on influence alone, Rem Koolhaas, the grandson of architect Dirk Roosenburg and son of author and thinker Anton Koolhaas, stands above all others and has, over the course of a career spanning four decades, sought to redefine the role of the architect from a regional autarch to a globally-active shaper of worlds. In 2016, a film conceived and produced by Tomas Koolhaas, the LA-based son of its eponymous protagonist, was released, biographically representing the work of OMA by “exposing the human experience of its architecture through dynamic film.”
Norman, New York || Fredrik Berselius & Claus Meyer
Located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Norman is a contemporary restaurant, café, in-house bakery and bar, conceptualised by Fredrik Berselius, who opened Williamsburg restaurant Aska last year, and Noma co-founder Claus Meyer. Set in the innovative and inviting space of A/D/O, Norman offers an all-day dining experience.
Designed in collaboration between nARCHITECTS and Christina Meyer Bengtsson, the eatery is centred around an open kitchen with a long marble bar, detailed tiling and soaring windows overlooking Wythe and Norman Avenues. In the open kitchen, Chef Andrew Whitcomb is cooking a menu of wholesome and creative dishes that elevates fresh and simple ingredients showcasing the best of the season, based on sustainable relationships with local suppliers and farmers.
The Parthenon of Books at documenta 14, Kassel & Athens || Marta Minujín, Adam Szymczyk & Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
Each edition of documenta takes its character from the thinking of its Artistic Director, and is therefore not only a forum for current trends in contemporary art, but a place where innovative and standard-setting exhibition concepts are trialled. Over the past decades, it has established itself as an institution that goes far beyond a survey of what is currently happening, inviting the attention of the international art world every five years for this “museum of 100 days.”
This year, documenta 14 takes place in both Kassel, Germany its traditional home, and Athens, Greece. Artistic Director Adam Szymczyk was keen that the exhibiting artists should work in both locations. Standing tall in the same site where the Nazis once burned 2000 books, Marta Minujín’s impressive replica of the Greek temple is made up of banned books from around the world. First constructed after the fall of the military and civilian dictatorship in Argentina in 1983, its 2017 manifestation is a one-to-one scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens and “a preeminent symbol of democracy”, says Candice Hopkins. Buenos Aires-born Minujín hoped to have 100,000 donated books fill the columns of the structure as a way to protest censorship
Feature image: Doug Aitken, Underwater Pavilions | Photo: Matt Crotty (via KCET)