Michael Sailstorfer
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Michael Sailstorfer (*1979) primarily works in sculpture and installation, as well as painting, performance, photography, and film. His conceptual-adjacent aesthetics revolves around a notion of sculptural expansion, which refers to the ability of his art to transcend its own format by deploying into the surrounding space. Ranging in scale from nearly imperceptible interventions to highly elaborate productions, his minimalistic and often absurd visions poetically disrupt the everyday. Whether car tires, wrecking balls, popcorn machines, or simple trees, he systematically diverts familiar objects from their original functions and frames of reference into alternative contexts of meaning. While he is deeply interested in the possibilities offered by formal instability, the recurrent use of kinetic devices paired with his ever-subtle preparation and transformation of materials actually allows him to introduce temporality and life into his oeuvre. Sailstorfer further pushes his practice beyond physicality by playfully experimenting with intangible qualities such as smell, sound, energy, and light.
Isabel Zürcher
lives and works in Basel, Switzerland
The art scholar Isabel Zürcher lives as a freelance author, critic and editor in Basel and Mulhouse. She has published various texts and writes regularly for daily journalistic and specialist media. Her publications and contributions include Helen Balmer – Zeichen stellen (Christoph Merian Verlag, 2020), Pays de rêve. Die Kunst der Kronenhalle (Prestel, 2019) Maria Magdalena Z’Graggen (Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2016); Christa Ziegler: Polis. Bilder von Städten (edition fink, 2013) repeatedly demonstrate her guiding interest in an adequate linguistic response to processes and works of visual art.
An Art and Exhibition Project by Klaus Littmann – presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G
TREE CONNECTIONS | 11.05. – 11.07.2021 | Exhibition space of KBH.G | Spitalstrasse 18, Basel | daily 11am-6pm, except Tuesdays | free entry #treeconnections
