Globus and Fondation Beyeler announce public art project: Claudia Comte, Waves, Cacti and Sunsets
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Basel (ots)
This summer, Swiss artist Claudia Comte will take-over and transform the facade of Basel's historical department store Globus with a large-scale installation that offers passers-by a moment of contemplation in their daily routines. Waves, Cacti and Sunsets is the first iteration of the "Globus Public Art Project". During the three-year renovation of its iconic department store on Basel's market square, Globus is collaborating with Fondation Beyeler on inviting artists to conceive and realize new site-specific works of art that engage with the building and its facade.
Waves, Cacti and Sunsets presents a window into another world, a world of contemplation and stimulation. While a sweeping black and white pattern provides a second skin to Globus' façade, consisting of an iridescent flow of lines and spanning the full height of the building, the work is comprised of large-format images of desert landscapes featuring tall cacti. In the background, a stunning sunset seduces and intrigues. The cacti are playful analogues of this plant and an ecological force: resilient and adaptive to the increasing aridity of land in many parts of the world. Camouflaged with a cartoonish environment that is both joyful and optimistic, the cactus is inscribed in Comte's artistic vocabulary as a symbol of desertification. The third component of the work is a repeating image of waves breaking, connected to each other like a sequence of film stills set on pause. Rolling along on the ground level, these waves invite people to look up while counterbalancing the desert above. Yet, the landscape also causes pause for thought: the desert is too arid to sustain human life; the cacti are cast in marble and the sunset is a burning orange. The work's undertones of ecological crisis provide a necessary counterpoint to the dreamscape.
Claudia Comte (b. 1983, Grancy) is a Swiss artist based in Basel, Switzerland. Her practice is guided by a longstanding interest in teasing out the history and memory of biomorphic forms through traditional hand processes, industrial and machine technologies. Comte's site-specific installations bring together monumental wall paintings and sculptures playfully inspired by organic patterns and morphology, paying testament to the intelligence and transformative capacities of the ecological world.
The "Globus Public Art Project" is a new initiative by the Swiss department store, realized in collaboration with Fondation Beyeler. As part of this cooperation, each year, during the three-year renovation of the iconic department store on Basel's market square, an artist will be invited to conceive and realize a work of art for the public space in and around the building.
About Globus
For almost 130 years, Globus department stores have been delighting their customers with an exquisite and high-quality range of goods in nine department stores and their online channel. The range is complemented by the incomparable service for which Globus and its approximately 1,800 employees are known. Globus has been present in Basel since 1907.
Globus Microsite: https://www.globus.ch/public-art-project
About Fondation Beyeler
The museum in Riehen near Basel is internationally renowned for its high-calibre exhibitions, its outstanding collection of modern and contemporary art, as well as its ambitious schedule of events. The museum building was designed by Renzo Piano in the idyllic setting of a park with venerable trees and water lily ponds. It boasts a unique location in the heart of a local recreation area, looking out onto fields, pastures and vineyards close to the foothills of the Black Forest. In collaboration with Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, the Fondation Beyeler is constructing a new museum building in the adjoining park, thus further enhancing the harmonious interplay of art, architecture and nature.
Press images are available at https://www.fondationbeyeler.ch/en/media/press-images
Contact:
Media contact:
Magazine zum Globus AG
Franziska Gaemperle
media@globus.ch