Haegue Yang, Mountains of Encounter, Installation, 2008.

The Art Premiere sector at Art 40 Basel this year presents 19 gallery-curated projects featuring a dialogue juxtaposing two artists, a presentation by a single artist of any age or exceptional art historical material – a new category within the sector, which focuses on the curatorial aspects of the gallerist’s practice. With a record number of over 200 applications to choose from, the Art Basel Committee and the sector’s experts selected participating galleries come from China, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Norway, United States, Taiwan and Japan. The 19 projects chosen promise exciting, unexpected, and provocative dialogues and juxtapositions, as well as solo presentations featuring works by artists representing different cultural backgrounds, generations, and artistic approaches.

The following galleries and artists have been selected by the Art Basel Committee:

Miguel Abreu Gallery (New York)

Liz Deschenes (1966) and R.H. Quaytman (1961)

Boers-Li Gallery (Beijing)

Liu Wei (1972) and Zhang Peili (1957)

Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin)

Charlotte Posenenske (1930-1985) and Peter Roehr (1944-1968)

Elizabeth Dee (New York)

Reneé Green (1959) and Adrian Piper (1948)

Eslite Gallery (Taipei)

Michael Lin (1964) and Tsiu Kuang-Yu (1974)

gb agency (Paris)

Robert Breer (1926) and Mark Geffriaud (1977)

Galerie d’Art Contemporain Frédéric Giroux (Paris)

General Idea (1969-1998)

Hollybush Gardens (London)

Knut Henrik Henriksen (1970) and Karl Holmquist (1964)

In Situ Fabienne Leclerc (Paris)

Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil (1968) and Joana Hadjithomas (1969)

& Khalil Joreige (1969)

Galerie Joanna Kamm (Berlin)

Simon Dybbroe Moller (1976) and Annette Kisling (1965)

Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris)

Patrick Faigenbaum (1954) and Eugène Leroy (1910-2000)

Galleria Lia Rumma (Milano)

Gino De Dominicis (1947-1998)

Jack Shainman Gallery (New York)

Kerry James Marshall (1955)

Standard (Oslo)

Emily Wardill (1977) and Oscar Tuazon (1975)

Taka Ishii Gallery (Tokyo)

Ei Arakawa (1977)

Tucci Russo Studio per l’Arte Contemporanea (Torre Pellice/Torino)

Mario Merz (1925-2003)

Galerie Aline Vidal (Paris)

François Morellet (1926)

Wilkinson Gallery (London)

Joan Jonas (1936) and Sung Hwan Kim (1975)

Tracy Williams (New York)

Anna Craycroft (1975) and Georgina Starr (1968)

The historical presentations are seminal works by Mario Merz (Tucci Russo Studio per l’Arte Contemporanea, Torre Pellice/Torino), Gino de Dominici’s unique work “Violated Bars” (1980) (Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano), and “God is my Gigolo”, the first video work (1969) by the Canadian artist collective General Idea (Galerie d’Art Contemporain Frédéric Giroux, Paris).

Galerie Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin) presents a dialogue between Charlotte Posenenske and Peter Roehr, who lived and worked in Frankfurt during the 1960s and were both fascinated by the rapid development of media and industry. Three-dimensional works by Posenenske will be set against collages by Roehr. Elisabeth Dee Gallery (New York) pairs Conceptual artists Adrian Piper and Renée Green, presenting Piper’s historic “Hypothesis” (1968-1969) series for the first time and “Parallel Grid Proposal for Dugway Proving Grounds” (1969) with a newly configured version of Green’s Video Installation “Partially Buried in Three Parts” (1996-1999).

Simon Dybbroe Moller and Annette Kisling at Galerie Joanna Kamm (Berlin) both employ the medium of photography in order to explore the day and night sky, yet to very different effect. Boers-Li Gallery (Beijing) creates a space for cross-generational and cross-media dialogue between Zhang Peili, the so-called “father of video art” in China and Liu Wei, a member of the “post-sense sensibility” generation of visual interventionists. Eslite Gallery (Taipei) presents “Mosquito Cinema”, a project based on a contrasting concept of collective memory from the past generation and its adaptation to modern days, bringing together a new installation of 80 stools by Michael Lin and video works from 1997 to 2005 by Tsui Kuang-Yu.

A conversation between the artists Joan Jonas and Sung Hwan Kim for a publication by Rotterdam’s Witte de With resulted in the project at Wilkinson Gallery, which reveals a mutual interest in performance and video, drawing and non-linear narrative. Gb agency (Paris) creates an encounter between two artists of different generations, Robert Breer and Mark Geffriaud, whose works test the way artworks may appear and be perceived. The spectator finds himself in the center of Robert Breer’s slowly moving motorized sculptures and a slide projection of Mark Geffriaud that plays on the apparition and the disappearance of images arranged and revealed by the use of light. Miguel Abreu Gallery stages a dialogue between the photographer Liz Deschenes and painter R.H. Quaytman on the topic of “mirroring”, playing upon themes such as reflection, opticality, picturing and contextualization.

At Hollybush Gardens (London) Karl Holmquist covers the booth with a wallpaper piece inspired by Kurt Schwitter’s second “Merzbau” and uses this environment for improvised readings and performances. Within Holmquist’s environment Knut Henrik Henriksen shows new free-standing white steel sculptures from the series “Monuments of Doubts”. In situ Fabienne Leclerc (Paris) juxtaposes the project “Faces” by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige with “Fin de Représentation” by Renaud Auguste- Dormeuil, two works that through different means focus on the disappearance of representation.

Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris) presents a dialogue between Patrick Faigenbaum, a photographer and Eugene Leroy, a painter, representing two generations but sharing the subject of light and both exploring classical themes such as landscape, body, portrait and still life. Standard (Oslo) juxtaposes a new 16 mm film of Emily Wardill with a large-scale sculpture of Oscar Tuazon. Sharing an interest in non-realism, Wardill and Tuazon’s works investigate cognitive dissonance, deviance and defamiliarization. A joint project at Tracey Williams (New York) displays hand-pressed records of sounds collected by Georgina Starr and poster-sized drawings by Anna Craycroft that draw on the topics of memory, childhood, character construction and loss.

One of the three solo projects at Jack Shainman Gallery (New York) showcases new paintings by Kerry James Marshall titled “Pin-ups and Portraits”, exploring the black figure in popular genres of painting not usually associated with the socio-political frame through which African American art is seen. Taka Ishii Gallery (Tokyo) presents a performative installation by the artist Ei Arakawa with “guest performances / interventions” by Arakawa’s frequent collaborateurs “Grand Openings”, a group of international artists. The third solo project at Galerie Aline Vidal (Paris) features a new site-specific piece with the title “Basel Exceptional” by François Morellet, the pioneer of systematic painting.