ROKEBY presents a context specific intervention by German artist Bettina Buck for Statements at Art Basel.



Buck’s practice is decidedly anti-modernist working with assemblage, collage and reconfigurations of existing, mundane, often found materials; regularly reclaiming industrial or industrially produced components. Materials and objects with traces of an alternative history and existence - carpet, found posters, aged foam, latex, plastic – are selected, re-imagined and combined to explore the limits of form, question notions of perception and re-interpret sculptural techniques and their art historical lineage.

Buck will often disrupt the encounter the viewer has with her work, carefully unsettling the physical experience or interaction with the work - hanging works at unusual heights or selecting work to sit uncomfortably together. Buck explores the works performativity and searches for what, in her words, “simultaneously attracts and alienates the viewer, for work which raises questions rather than presents answers”. Throughout her practice Buck presents delicate moments of uncertainty.

For her presentation at Statements Buck includes an all but concealed intervention which underlines her working practice and asks for the visitor’s active – physical, visual, conceptual – engagement. Prior to the fair opening Buck will tile the walls and floor of the booth in traditional ceramic tiles of a distinct colour. Once tiled, the original walls and floor will be covered by a structure that echoes the original booth thus concealing the tiles and the artist’s performative role. The cavity created between the tiled surface and the new wall and floor structure will offer a subtly-altered, disconcerting encounter of the booth, whilst highlighting the fair context and the viewing experience.

The altered booth will include a restricted number of new works that intend to quietly bring attention to the concealed intervention. These new works may not be instantly perceptible - a rolled and wrapped carpet will hang close to the floor and a small bronze from the ceiling - thus questioning and emphasizing the challenging viewing experience and art fair context whilst underlining the artists practice as a whole.

Bettina Buck (born 1974, Cologne) studied at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne before completing an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London. She was recently selected as one of twenty-five young artists for Art Cologne’s New Positions. She has recently exhibited in Proposal (Nacht und Träume) for Stavanger, curated by Vincent Honoré, and with Sara Barker in Bettina Buck invites… at Mirko Mayer Gallery. The artist is preparing for her second solo exhibition at the gallery in October 2010.

Statements: Hall 1, Booth S10

Messe Basel
Messeplatz, 4005 Basel
Switzerland

15.06.2010: vernissage
16.06.2010 - 20.06.2010: 11.00 - 19.00


For more information visit:
www.artbasel.com