Norwegian Artists and Galleries at Art Week in Basel, Switzerland

Art Basel is the worlds’s leading art fair in the international art market where over 200 selected galleries from around the world presented modern and contemporary works of high quality. Simultaneously in Basel there were three other art fairs (Liste Art Fair Basel, June Art Fair and VOLTA Art Fair) museums and galleries presenting works by modern masters and emerging talents from all over the world.

Gallery Femtensesse by Jenny Kinge participated at Liste Art Fair Basel for the second time. This was the only Norwegian gallery among the 88 galleries from 35 countries in Hall 1.1 at Messe Basel. With artworks by over 100 artists, 66 solo and 18 group presentations, and two joint stands, the galleries introduced the public to the latest voices in contemporary art.

Breaking with the fair format, Norwegian artist Marthe Ramm Fortun presented a performative work, Life Hacks I've Picked up from Death Notices, as the main artwork for Femtensesse’s booth at Liste Art Fair Basel. Fortun forms emphatic connections with the audience in ambulating performance series and ephemeral sculptural interventions. She here presented such a connection between a site-specific installation in the booth interconnected with a series of performances extending from the fair out into public space. Fortun’s reactive works confront a gulf between the vulnerable individual and the historically governed representation of the female body, extending to stigma surrounding life and work when you belong to one or more categories of otherness. The artist presentenced three performances, starting from inside Femtensesse’s booth and moving outside the building into public space.

There were also other works by Norwegian and Norway based artists to be seen in Basel the week of 12. - 18. July, 2023;

Art Basel
STANDARD (OSLO) presented works by Ann Cathrin November Høibo, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Mathias Faldbakken, Mari Slåttelid, Torbjørn Rødland and Jinbin Chen.
Galerie Nordenhake (Stockholm), Stevenson Gallery (Cape Town) and Modern Art (London) presented works by Frida Orupabo.
Croy Nielsen (Vienna) presented work by Sandra Mujinga.
Galleri Nicolai Wallner (Copenhagen) represented works by Elmgren & Dragset
Pilar Corrias (London) presented works by Ragna Bley

Art Basel Unlimited included a work by Cory Arcangel, living and working in Stavanger.

June Art Fair
VI, VII (Oslo) presented works by Martin Sæther.
Christian Andersen (Copenhagen) presented works by Lina Viste Grønli.
Centralbanken (Oslo) presented works by Kjartan Slettemark, Terje Bergstad, Bjarne Ness, Per Krogh, Svallaug Svalastoga and Agnes Houg.
Etablissement d’en face (Brussels) presented a Special Project including works by Henrik Olai Kaarstein.

Gallery Wilde
Solo exhibition with never-before-seen photographs and sculptures as well as a site-specific installation by Per Barclay 12 June – 12 August.

Amongst the Norwegian gallery representation during the art week in Basel, OCA’s International Support for Galleries and Independent Exhibition Spaces grant scheme supported Femtensesse at Liste Art Fair Basel, Centralbanken and VI, VII at June Art Fair and STANDARD (OSLO) at Art Basel.

Header image: Marthe Ramm Fortun, Life Hacks I've Picked up from Death Notices, June 12, 2023". Photo: Julie Hrnčířová. Courtesy of the artist and Femtensesse (Oslo).