Diane,
I spent my day in Basel speaking english, français und deutsch and alles durcheinander. I met Lena Eriksson in the morning – une person d’une douceur et d’une sensibilité incroyable! Next to her ongoing drawing series about every day life, she’s involved in several collectif projects, like Neuland Magazine or Lodypop – a project room she started in her flat, the name standing for « Leistung ohne Druck und Projekte ohne Panic ». We start a very interesting discussion about what it means to be an artist, how to define yourself, how to place yourself within the art world and society, how to evaluate the value of your work. Unfortunately, I have to leave in the middle of the discussion in order not to be late for lunch with Alexandra Stäheli, coordinator of Atelier Mondial, the international art exchange program where I met Jennifer, Justin and Quentin on Tuesday. In the afternoon I meet Max Leiss, who defines himself as a sculptor although he takes a lot of photographs and you could also call him conceptual or installation artist, or even just someone who knows how to look at things and space. He displaces objects by considering their sculptural qualities and combining them into spatial phrases, which are at the same time minimalistic and deeply poetical.
Max Leiss, Aus dem Leben der Wildkatzen, 2012, installation view
