Neue Messe
June 27 – August 11, 2019
A huge site-specific installation by Sebastian Mundwiler on the e-boards and LED facade of the City Lounge, Messeplatz.
Thanks to the support of the Film and Media Arts Committee BS/BL, Sebastian Mundwiler could be invited for a new production. He presents his work on the three large electronic display panels and the huge LED running strips of Halle Nord and Halle Süd, which are located at the City Lounge of the New Basel Trade Fair Centre. This is a very special public place. The circular hall within the dynamically pulsating architecture of Herzog & de Meuron virtually surrounds the exhibition square and thus marks a gateway to the city centre. Beneath this are tram stops, which regulate the flow of traffic between the Badische Bahnhof railway station and the city centre. Numerous commuters and new arrivals pass through here and during the fairs the visitors frequent here. The unusual architecture is open at the top and forms the so-called "eye to the sky", with the floor plan of the City Lounge itself beeing reminiscent of the shape of an eye.
The videocity.bs experiments will be extended here with regard to addressing and activating the viewers. Since passers-by literally cross the pictorial space on foot, by tram or by bicycle, this offers the opportunity to include them even more. The new artwork installed here is calculated in response to this situation of perception and movement. It constructs an atmosphere of light, colour and movement, capturing in the rotunda of the exhibition architecture as it were the evening light. It is not possible to grasp everything at once in this 360-degree rotunda. These are colour progessions carried over into the day or into the night which can be woven together with sensations and experiences to form personal images in the mind.
Sebastian Mundwiler was invited because he primarily thinks in his work about the possibilities of perception and how they are conditioned. His video cycle "eppur si muove", begun in 2013, experiments with a 360 degree rotation of the camera. So the "Eye to the Sky" is ideal for him to continue with this on the largest scale.