Basel | Switzerland
https://www.baselsocialclub.com/2024.html
Pi Artworks is thrilled to present a new sound-installation piece by artist Liam Howe, Party of One, comprising a one-man tent, isolated amidst its pastoral surroundings. On closer inspection, the structure emits muffled dance music, and due to hidden motors within, appears to be shivering, perhaps as if cold or afraid. Sporadically, the sound of a recorder playing the traditional German folk lament, Good-bye to Summer, can be heard above the muted, club-style drone.
Evoking the imagery of a foregone music festival, the discarded remnants of summer hedonism, or potentially of somebody seeking refuge, this work is ultimately a reflection on loneliness and isolation in contemporary culture. This quaking structure is fragile, and with no respite from the foreboding sound it emits, any associations of shelter and safety have become warped.
The work instead raises questions of excess and waste - is it one of the many tents discarded after festivals like Glastonbury, or Coachella? Or is it a more potent reflection on the consequences of hedonistic ignorance, of the isolation that arises from feeling the need to hide from the world?
Liam Howe (born 1970 Hartlepool) is multidisciplinary artist and musician who lives and works in London. He studied Fine Art at Reading University (1990-1994).
After graduating he had his first solo art show (curated by Frieze’s Tom Gidley) at London’s Cut Gallery in Waterloo (1995). During this artistic emergence Howe’s musical career was also burgeoning and his art-school band ‘Sneaker Pimps’ garnered a worldwide recording deal with Virgin Records (1996) The group had global success, selling several million records, and touring internationally for nearly a decade (1996-2005).
Basel Social Club returns for its third edition in a new location and new format: a week-long event in the open air on farmland fields behind the residential neighborhood of Bruderholz, extending across approximately 50 hectares of land into Baselland – from the city border to the edge of the forest.
The 2024 edition brings together an exhibition by local and international artists, a program of performances and many culinary offerings. Artistic interventions are positioned throughout the fields, between the barns, and amongst the trees, responding to this year’s ecological emphasis. Landscape, agriculture, and farm animals are core elements of this year’s edition, with host farmers as active participants.