How much does a private jet cost? And what do trucks and warehouses have to do with the artworks exhibited at Art Basel? These are some of the questions I will explore during my upcoming participation at Basel Art Summer camp...
Building on my practice at the intersection of graphic design, critical research and self-publishing, I will seek answers to questions like the ones outlined above through on-site observation and open source research. For example, through the analysis of flight transponder data hinting at the arrival of high-net worth individuals in Basel before and during the fair. Or by retracing the secretive world of freeports and global art logistics through openly available sources.
Based on this research, I will print a series of fictitious banknotes at a local Risograph workshop in Basel that engage with issues around transnational art and capital. I chose the medium of banknotes due to their inherently conflicting nature: Both ephemeral and eternal, symbolically valuable and materially almost worthless, and timeless yet slowly falling out of fashion. By putting this medium in dialogue with specific expressions of capital transfer and accumulation, I will shed light on the visible and invisible connections between Art Basel’s physical presence in the city and the global systems connected to it.
These banknotes will be released as a special issue of “Papertrail”, a publishing platform I recently co-launched. Papertrail is a critical publishing platform that engages with subjects linked to local urban issues and their connection to global systems of power. Using an explicitly analogue approach relying on risograph-printed folding posters, zines and pamphlets, materials are distributed through the vast network of volunteer-run street libraries in Dutch cities. Through this distribution method, Papertrail embraces chance and human agency as mode of discovery.
In late May, we released our first issue titled “Under the Sea”. Taking the shape of an extravagantly shaped folding poster, the publication critically investigates the global undersea cable infrastructure, which has temporarily become visible during fiber optic network expansion works in The Hague and other Dutch cities. In addition, we use self-printed posters to illustrate various issues connected to the topics we engage with.
A selection of works will be available for purchase during Basel Art Camp between 13-15 June. Come visit us:
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