2017 marks the first year that Philipp Kaiser, independent curator and critic, will curate the Public sector at Art Basel in Miami Beach. Framed around the theme ‘Territorial’, the sector will transform Collins Park into an outdoor exhibition space, featuring 11 site-responsive works by established and emerging artists: Frida Baranek, Yto Barrada, Daniel Buren, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Philippe Decrauzat, Noël Dolla, Cyprien Gaillard, Daniel Knorr, Harold Mendez, Manuela Viera-Gallo and Brenna Youngblood. In addition, Jim Shaw and his D’red D’warf band will present the premiere of ‘The Rinse Cycle’, a progressive rock opera ten years in the making. Art Basel, whose Lead Partner is UBS, takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center from December 7 to December 10, 2017.
Commenting on the theme of this year’s sector – ‘Territorial’ – Philipp Kaiser notes, ‘Since time immemorial, sculpture has been territorial, commanding and authoritarian. Even when sculpture is presented with utmost restraint and elegance, it asserts its own physical space that we inevitably must share with it.’ The works selected for Public address this aspect of sculpture as the pieces claim space or territory through size, scale, intensity and sound, among other artistic practices. The theme is also a reference to a specific historical discourse from the 1960s in which artists of different nationalities became interested in new sites for their sculptures that existed outside of traditional art institutions.