Lara Almarcegui

The Spanish artist Lara Almarcegui (b. 1972, Zaragoza), living in Rotterdam, was internationally recognized with her installation in the Spanish pavilion at the 2013 Biennale di Venezia. Her first solo exhibition in Switzerland is addressing the place and the architecture of the Kunsthaus Baselland and the city of Basel with its current urban projects, visions and potential to make new perspectives possible.

For the Kunshaus Baselland, Almarcegui has piled in 300 cubic metres of excavated material, creating heaps several metres high. This may sound sensationalist. But if you know Lara Almarcegui it is soon clear that it is anything but cheap showmanship. Instead with her works she examines what seems normal and given to us in an informed artistic and scientific manner.

What is architecture made of? How is it constructed? Is built space a binding, or also transient, pliable form, which carries its own ruin within, from the moment of construction? What do the countless urban building projects rest upon? Who is in possession; who are the owners? These are the fundamental questions relating to how we live together and coexist in urban contexts that interest the artist.