Earnest & Algernon: Geheimsache

T: Kina Deimel
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other. Indeed, many of the works presented at the show stands
appeared as subjects to the primacy of complaisance and
salability in terms of format, to an aesthetics that often drifted
towards the realm of decoration. But despite the difficulties
that many young artists face in this overwhelmingly commercialized
art world, the context in Basel left, if not opened up
a space for some subversive experiments.
During my stay in Basel my attention was drawn to the work
of Alexander
Baczyński-Jenkins,
a young British-
Polish artist one
of whose cho-
reographies was
enacted as
part of this year’s
performance
project at LISTE.
Concurrently
taking place to Art
Basel every
year since its
inauguration
in 1996, LISTE
brands itself as
“the world’s most
important fair
for young and
emerging art,” a complement to the established artistic positions
that Art Basel presents. Though this might sound promising
in terms of subversion, much of what was presented
ultimately revealed a reproduction of the very same logic that
dominated the mass-attracting partner event. I interviewed
Alexander about the ideas behind his work, about what it
means to present performance work in such a context, the
reasons for his decision for this processual form of expression,
and about the platform that LISTE provides for his work.
Maybe, what’s left to be subversive in such contexts lies in
the engagement with what we tend to consider as the banal,
the most fundamental and simple elements, encounters and
experiences of everyday life.