The Kunstverein SALTS is currently showcasing three solo exhibitions at its City SALTS location in Birsfelden (Basel, Switzerland). In its Cabane space artist Paul Fritz shows two video loops, the Garage space has been turned into a mixed media installation by the artists Jannik Giger and Demian Wohler, and the Box space features works by Estefania García Pineda and Edinson Quiñones Falla. All three shows run until February 25, 2025. This video takes us to the exhibitions’ opening event on February 2, 2024.
The Kunstverein SALTS encompasses CITY SALTS, situated in various spaces within a garden by the Birs riverside, at the confluence of the Rhine in Birsfelden, on the border of Basel City (since 2009), and COUNTRY SALTS, a spacious remise with living space, a library, nestled high in the green hills of the Basel region in Bennwil (since 2020).
November Opening at City SALTS, Basel. Birsfelden (Basel, Switzerland), November 2, 2024.
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Exhibition texts (excerpts):
Dummies: Solo show by Paul Fritz in the Cabane, curated by Benedikt Wyss & Samuel Leuenberger
By blending techniques that range from computer-generated images to traditional hand-drawn animation, stop motion, and even live-action footage, Lausanne-based artist Paul Fritz (1999) explores genres and layers of narration to craft illusory stories, where reality and fiction dance hand in hand. «Dummies» is showing the casting tapes’ outtake of two CGI characters auditioning to play the role of the artist and his brother when they were six and four years old. The videos are inspired by original child star casting tapes, such as the one from Henry Thomas auditioning to play Eliott in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
Paul Fritz (b. 1999) lives and works in the Lausanne region. He is currently a student in the Master of Visual Arts program at ECAL. Coming from a background in animation, he maintains both an artistic and a filmmaker’s practice, with a fluid boundary between the two. His work is primarily video-based, often incorporating elements of sculpture, installation, and/or performance. His work was featured in group shows at For Space in Basel in collaboration with Virginie Sistek (2024), POP GUN in New York (2024), Basecamp in Locarno (2023), and HEK in Basel (2023). His films were shown at the LUFF in Lausanne (2024) as well as UFM in Lucerne (2023 & 2024).
Lamento: Video installation by Jannik Giger and Demian Wohler in the Garage, curated by Benedikt Wyss
The Basel-based composer and video artist Jannik Giger (1985) and the Zurich-based set designer Demian Wohler (1984) explore desire and affect in their walk-in installation «Lamento.» They reflect on the fact that there is never an encounter of unmediated bodies, only the meeting of socially constructed fantasies and role plays. In the accompanying video work, extracted verses from iconic love songs are combined with sampled organ sounds, creating a new composition that is projected onto staged human bodies. In this reverse exorcism, two figures on a film set are emotionalized, animated, and instrumentalized by the musical material.
Ofrenda: Duo show by Estefania García Pineda and Edinson Quiñones Falla in the Box, curated by Mario Kreuzberg
Our guest curator duo Mario Kreuzberg (Manuela Morales Délano und Charles Benjamin) presents their last exhibition for SALTS together with Colombian artists Estefania García Pineda (1991) and Edinson Quiñones Falla (1982) who are part of the collective Mingas de Pensamiento Prácticas De-coloniales. For Quiñones, Art is synonymous with healing, his research focuses on making visible what seems invisible and legal what is illegal. His artistic practice includes personal, collective, family, and territorial healing processes. Pineda is an artist and curator from Montelíbano. She has accompanied social processes linked to memory, environment, activity mining, and the development of territorial processes; her work has been focused on symbolic relief and aesthetic bets that become identity constructions, through creative processes and art.
