Haroon Mirza / hrm199 Ltd at Museum Tinguely in Basel (Switzerland) is an extensive exhibition of work by the London-based artist Haroon Mirza. Devised by Roland Wetzel, Director of Museum Tinguely, the show presents large spatial installations that often include sound, light, video and film as well as randomly found objects and works by other artists. On display are existing works alongside several new pieces created especially for the exhibition and specific to the site where they are placed. Haroon Mirza/hrm199 Ltd. focuses on the collaborative nature of the artist’s practice. The exhibition’s title, the name of Mirza’s studio and company ‘hrm199 Ltd.’ implies the essence of his approach. In this case, the contributing artists are Mattia Bosco, Alexander Calder, Jeremy Deller, Francesca Fornasari, Gaia Fugazza, Alexander Heim, Gary Hill, Channa Horwitz, Anish Kapoor, TJ O’Keefe, Guy Sherwin, Richard Sides and Jean Tinguely.
Among the works on display are Bitbang Mirror (2015), for which Mirza uses a concave mirror by Anish Kapoor to explore its acoustic qualities with a loudspeaker; Standing Stones (2015), a technologically upgraded marble sculpture, exhibited in Solitude Park and created by Mirza together with the Italian stone mason Mattia Bosco; Dance of Death Intervention (2015), an intervention with light and sound, inspired by the characteristic metallic screeching of Jean Tinguely’s Mengele-Dance of Death (1986); and A Chamber for Horwitz; Sonakinatography Transcriptions in Surround Sound (2015), an approximately two-hour long electronic light and sound concert based on compositions by Californian artist Channa Horwitz.
Haroon Mirza studied painting, design and theory at the Winchester School of Art, Goldsmiths and at Chelsea College of Art. He rose to international fame in 2011 when he was awarded the Silver Lion at the 54th Biennale of Venice. In 2014 he also received The Zurich Art Prize and The Nam June Paik Award.
Haroon Mirza / hrm199 Ltd. at Museum Tinguely, Basel (Switzerland). Exhibition walk-through, June 9, 2015.
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