Nicolas Krupp Gallery is presenting new works by documenta X participant Peter Friedl. VTV is talking with gallery owner Nicolas Krupp about the current exhibition and Basel as a place for contemporary art. The gallery was founded in autumn 2000 and is based in Basel, Switzerland, within walking distance of the Basel art fair. The programm focuses on young international contemporary artists. The gallery shows works in a variety of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, objects, photography, video art and works in new media (computer). Besides its exhibitions the gallery is also producing multiples with emerging artists. Interview (in German, English translation follows) and impressions from the preview, January 6, 2006.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00 We have already seen each other at the FIAC.
00:10 Werther would like to know how you read this year?
00:15 The FIAC was, how should I say, I am a little bit split.
00:20 It was not a very good fair, I have to say.
00:24 Unfortunately, Paris is currently a rather disappointing cluster for the German art.
00:30 There were some good and interesting contacts, but on the whole,
00:34 they were rather disappointing, even if they were bought.
00:37 I think the Swiss are the stupid ones.
00:40 They open the doors for everyone and we sell all good bars.
00:44 But that's also the case in London and in the city of London.
00:47 They have much more, I think, more potential than the Swiss.
00:53 But does the success of the art in Basel actually give away?
00:58 Of course, it has to be like that.
01:01 These are actually not correct interventions.
01:06 If you look at it, protectionism is actually the middle ground.
01:10 We have the problem that we have too few good contemporary galleries here in Basel.
01:15 And the few that exist are spread over the whole city.
01:19 So someone who comes from abroad loses more time in Basel than in a big city,
01:24 if he wants to visit three galleries.
01:27 And that's too good and no one cares about it.
01:32 And that's not good either.
01:35 So we have to try to organize this scene better.
01:38 And then of course there are more interesting galleries in Basel.
01:43 Yes, maybe to the exhibition, to Peter Friedl.
01:49 Is this the third exhibition this year?
01:51 This is already the third exhibition.
01:53 Peter is an active artist.
01:56 In 2003 he showed a film here that he shot in South Africa.
02:01 It's about mass discrimination.
02:03 The film is called "Kim Kohl".
02:05 And now, in 2005, we have a compilation of various works from the last few years.
02:13 Among other things, this map here in the background,
02:16 which refers to his drawings, his children's drawings,
02:21 which he alienates here and enlarges, changes in color,
02:28 and also partly converts from memories to this partly wrong map of North America,
02:39 the western part of North America.
02:42 And here, just a quick excerpt, he also picks up on the typical topics.
02:51 It's about the Indians, among other things.
02:58 It's a topic of discrimination.
03:00 He's not interested in black and white or racial minorities.
03:03 This is a problem in many countries, including here in India.
03:08 No photography.
03:11 In the middle room here, where he actually, instead of the usual press flood photos,
03:21 photographed the clouds above the borderline in Cyprus,
03:27 and then held on to this computer animation.
03:31 So, as it were, a paradigm shift.
03:37 I think it's quite nice, it looks a bit like a comic.
03:42 Yes, yes.
03:44 It's really like this, if you're standing in front of it and you don't know the work,
03:47 you can't understand it at all, you can't see what's going on.
03:50 You just have the feeling it's a comic.
03:52 The treehouse, this is shown here on the monitor.
03:59 It was also already shown as a projection, so it doesn't necessarily have to be shown like this,
04:03 but he wanted it to have an exhibition like this.
04:06 It's actually about three different variants,
04:08 how a treehouse could fall down,
04:13 through the saw, as it is now, through the wind, or through the fist,
04:17 as is shown here.
04:20 I met Peter here about six or seven years ago,
04:29 before I had the gallery, he was invited by the Laugan Foundation.
04:35 The Laugan Foundation invites about two artists per year,
04:40 a musician and a visual artist, as they say.
04:50 And Peter had this dry treehouse available for a year,
04:57 and I got his work from the documenter at the time.
05:04 When I knew he was in Basel, I called him,
05:07 because I felt that he was an artist I was interested in,
05:11 and I didn't understand him.
05:12 Then I had the conversation with him,
05:14 and we met two or three times.
05:17 And that's how the art work started.
05:22 It's beautiful!
05:25 Are you doing interviews with people who work in the interior?
05:35 Yes.
05:36 Ah, not a documenter.
05:38 A documenter.