From December 6 through 9, Miami Beach, Florida, will host the 11th edition of Art Basel, the most prestigious art show in the Americas. More than 260 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa will take part, showcasing works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The exhibiting galleries are among the world’s most respected art dealers, offering exceptional pieces by both renowned artists and cutting-edge newcomers. Special exhibition sections feature young galleries, performance art, public art projects and video art. The show will be a vital source for art lovers, allowing them to both discover new developments in contemporary art and experience rare museum-caliber artworks.
Top-quality exhibitions in the museums of South Florida and special programs for art collectors and curators also help make the event a special time for encountering art. And every year, a greater number of art collectors, artists, dealers, curators, critics and art enthusiasts from around the world participate in Art Basel – the favorite winter meeting place for the international art world..
Outdoors, Art Video Nights will present eight screening programs from Wednesday,
December 5 through Saturday, December 8. Film and video works by artists including Julieta Aranda, Guy Ben-Ner, Daniel Arsham, Theaster Gates, Jesper Just, Mauricio Lupini, Rashaad Newsome, Ryan McGinley, Robin Rhode, Sam Samore, Adam Shecter, and Hu Xiangqian will be included in thematic programs. Art Video Nights will also feature a special dusk-to-dawn screening of the 12-hour long film ‘Bliss’ by Ragnar Kjartansson, presented by Art Basel in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) North Miami and the New World Center.
Wednesday, December 5 at 8pm
Opening the Art Video Nights series, ‘Love, Time & Decorum’ traces the undercurrent of sensuality and anxiety through videos including William Kentridge’s ‘Anti-Mercator’, 2010/11 (Goodman Gallery, Marian Goodman Gallery and Galleria Lia Rumma) and Robin Rhode’s ‘Open Court’, 2012 (Lehmann Maupin).
Wednesday, December 5, 9pm
‘Music, Magic & Melancholia,’ a program inspired by artists’ responses to the music of Sigur Rós and Antony and the Johnsons, will include, among others, Ryan McGinley’s ‘Varúð’, 2012 (Team Gallery); Ragnar Kjartansson’s ‘Ég anda’, 2012 (i8 Gallery). The program will also feature Ari Marcopoulos’s video ‘Detroit’, 2010 (Kavi Gupta Gallery and Marlborough Gallery).
Thursday, December 6, 8pm
‘Universal, Dreams & Anthems’ will present unusual dichotomies in film – animation blended with live-action, fiction with history, the earthly and the sublime. The program concludes with an unusual rendition of the American national anthem by Chen Xiaoyun (ShanghART & H Space). Videos will include Josiah McElheny’s ‘Island Universe’, 2005-8 (White Cube); Pedro Reyes’s ‘Baby Marx TV Series (Episode 1: On Surplus Value)’, 2011 (Labor); and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s ’16mm’, 2008/11 (Mendes Wood).
Thursday, December 6, 9pm
The second program of the evening, ‘Waltzing, Driving & Reflections’, features movement as a formal device or theme with works including Jesper Just’s ‘Sirens of Chrome’, 2010 (James Cohen Gallery, Galleri Nicolai Wallner and Perriton); and Takeshi Murata and Billy Grant’s ‘Night Moves’, 2012 (Salon 94).
Friday, December 7, 8pm
‘Shadows, Circles & Fire’ features films that seek to negotiate space and time in unique ways, emphasizing the transitory and the fleeting. Selections include Guy Ben-Ner’s ‘Foreign Names’, 2012 (Konrad Fischer Galerie); Mircea Cantor’s ‘Sic Transit Gloria
Mundi’, 2012 (Galerie Yvon Lambert); and a preview of Rashaad Newsome’s ‘Shade Compositions (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)’, 2012 (Marlborough Gallery).
Friday, December 7, 9pm
‘Laughing, Wondering & Meditating,’ which explores different kinds of strangeness from works embracing unexpected encounters, humor, anxiety, and madness will include Theaster Gates’s ‘Sun Salutation’, 2011 (Kavi Gupta Gallery), Julieta Aranda’s ‘Springtime’, 2010 (Galería OMR) and Dineo Seshee Bopape’s ‘The Problem Of Beauty’, 2009 (Stevenson), among others.
Friday, December 7, 10pm
As the third program of the evening, ‘Spirit,
Breath & Air’, begins with breath and touches on the visual and the tactile by exploring everyday life, locations, and objects. Videos featured in this program include Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s ‘Fishermen (Etudes, no. 1)’, 2007 (Marian Goodman Gallery); and David Zink Yi’s ‘Pneuma’, 2010 (Hauser & Wirth and Johann König).
Saturday, December 8, 6pm to Sunday, December 9, 6am Concluding Art Video Nights is a special collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) North Miami and the New World Center, Art Basel presents the first screening outside of Iceland of ‘Bliss’, 2012 by Ragnar Kjartansson (i8 Gallery and Luhring Augustine). The 12-hour long film – based on the artist’s performance for New York’s international biennial of visual art performance, Performa 11 – features the final aria of Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ as a single shot filmed with full orchestra, scenery, and period costumes.
Admission to Art Video Nights is free. Visitors are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs.
In conjunction with the outdoor series, curator David Gryn has selected 18 films from Art Video Nights, in addition to 11 additional videos to be presented in a continuous loop within five viewing pods inside the Miami Beach Convention Center. Admission to Art Video is free with an entry ticket to the show.
For the full list of works being screened as part of Art Video Nights and within the Miami Beach Convention Center, please visit www.artbasel.com/video. About Art Basel
Art Basel stages the world’s premier art shows for Modern and contemporary works, sited in Basel, Hong Kong, and Miami Beach. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. In addition to ambitious stands featuring leading galleries from around the globe, each show’s singular exhibition sectors spotlight the latest developments in the visual arts, offering
visitors new ideas, new inspiration and new contacts in the art world.