HEBEL 121

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In Basel, Switzerland, a town currently known by the art world as a place of intense com-merce, sits a store front. An art space, where the show room ex-ists a place for site- specific proj-ects and the back room is one for gallery exhibition. Here, there is no

vinyl lettering to be found and there are

no lofty price tags to accompany the

sellable work generously donated to

the space by the exhibiting artist(s). A

since of realism can be found. It is the

real love for art and for artists. It is the

real chill people who have given their

all to support the idea that art spaces

are for the artists and the viewers more

so than for the people who run them.

Despite all the real that can be found in

this store front it has no real name and

is only given the title Hebel 121 by its

location on Hebelstrasse. The use of lo-

cation as title shows the importance of

place to the founding principles ofthis

art space. Standing out front of

the space one would guess that many

people inhabit the streets nearby. One

would also guess that most of those in-

habitants are probably not regulars in

the art universe. Gerda Maise, a co-

director of the space with Daniel Goet-

tin, has a strong conceptual alignment

with this reality. She speaks of the im-

portance of relationships. The relation-

ship of the artist and the gallery, the

artist and the work, the space and the

work, and so on. Quite possibly one

of the most unique relationships devel-

oped here, one that falls in line with the

importance of location, is the relation-

ship between the art and the passerby.

Someone who is hardly interested in art

could find themselves walking by the

space at the middle of the night, the

lights on as they always are, thinking,

“ What a nice curtain shop.”, and may-

be they come back the next day to buy

some curtains only to find out that they

have stepped in to an art space. Heb-

el 121 gives promise to those who are

taught to believe that money, above all

else, rules the art world. It promises to

put the art and the relationships that

develop there of before commerce.

his gallery in Basel was unlike most of the galleries we visited on our Switzerland trip. First of all, it was simply one and a half room off a small street in Baselin an old bakery the two owners turned into a storefront gallery. The gal-lery could only house one show at a time and the show that was up when we were there was New York based artist Andrew Huston. You could see his installation from outside because of the huge windows but upon walking into the space, the in-stallation was all you could see. In the center of the gallery, Huston had placed around five or six sheets of meshed fabric that he had applied sil-ver substance to. The sheets were from ceiling to floor and around a foot apart. The viewer was invited to walk through the sheets and experi-ence them, which was a refreshing change from the “no-touch” attitude most galleries had. The silver and goldish sheets were gorgeous and filled the entire space, leaving some space to walk around the object. On the wall Huston had displayed an iPhone playing a looped video of the wing of a plane during flight. Though this was different than the rest of his show, it some-how fit in really well with the attitude and feel-ing of the others in that it was simple but at the same time very intriguing and beau-tiful. There was a walkway into the other, smaller room of the gallery where Huston

had displayed a few paintings he had made us-ing similar materials (i.e. metallic) for the other piece. We were luckily enough to speak to Hus-ton who came and met us at the space, which was interesting. His explanation of the iPhone piece was interesting because he described how is iPhone acted more as a sketchbook than any-thing else and the fact that he can display it as an art object was interesting to him. The owners of the gallery were also completely wonderful. They had a great attitude toward the art world and explained how they invested a lot of time and money into their space and how exciting and inspirational it was to them. One of the owners let us view his studio space in the back, which was unlike anything I had ever seen. The own-ers encouraged us to go out and make work and start our own spaces which was a lovely change from what most of the other curators and gallery owners had said to us before that. Out of all the galleries, this was the most inspiring to me as a young artist as I want to start my own space.

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As we walked up the little steps into the art space located on the corner of the street, before us was a cute space with white walls and light wooden floors. Hung there, were three golden and silver fabrics loosely woven together, form-ing odd sections in- between the main room we walked through. There was a kind woman, Gerda Maise, whocame out and welcomed us, bringing chocolates and drinks. Then the artist of thework, Andrew Huston, and the co-owner of the art space and renowned artist, Daniel Göttin, both came in from separate doors and began to talk about the pieces. Something that stuck out to me the most about this art space was first, the space itself. Daniel and Gerda’s exhibition space is also their living space and studio. They kindly showed us around their

kitchen and studio where Daniel does his art. The first thing that came to mind was that these people were so incredibly down-to-earth and humble as evidenced by the way they live. It was so apparent that they loved what they do and they appreciated their community. Their big windows came about during conversation and they expressed how much they loved the neighborhood people looking in and seeing the process of the art coming in and out of the space. It was very refreshing to meet people

like them.

Housing the work of Andrew Huston, the former bakery now known as, was the only artist run space we had seen on the trip. Looking to bring the outside world in, the owners have kept this space as a showcase of artist work. Inviting one artist at a time to transform the space into a site-specific work, they are looking to introduce people to art and bring

art to everyday people who are open to seeing it.

As we were pleasantly greeted into the inviting space, there hung the works of Huston, curtains of aluminum-leafed mesh fabric. five in a row as a sort of deconstructed painting, they seemed to be vicariously living through layers of another medium. Creating a transparent environment, these gilded loose weave layers transform the art space into an optical experience as one is invited to weave themselves through the open-ings between layers. This piece’s transient quality is also suggested in Huston’s other works like the iPhone on the wall playing a video of a plane taking off for flight from a passengers view. Temporary and easily transportable are these transparent qualities in his work. As the gallery suggests, Huston’s interests in mirror and reflective based materials is expressed in his paintings displayed in the back room, which also fea-

ture the use of gold-leaf in abstract-based compositions.

We saw you at Liste, what was your impres-sion of Liste and ArtBasel this year?Art fairs are the height of the commodification of the art experience. It is a time and place to network, not really to look at art. To distinguish between one fair and another is like choosing be-tween dinner invitations- it’s not very interesting, though it can be tempting.

What were the highlights of your time in Basel during all these openings and art events?I visited the Kunstmuseum and its exceptional collection for the first time and was fascinated by the exhibition of Konrad Witz, the 15th Cen-tury Northern Renaissance painter. I was giddy in front of the room of Holbein paintings.

We also met with you at Hebel_121 in which you briefly explained your installation. During the weeks surrounding Art Basel; how has your work been received at Hebel_121 and Basel?It was difficult to extract people from the mag-netism of the fairs, but once they made it to the jewel box of Hebel_121 I think they were happy to experience the singularity of the exhibition.

What’s your relationship with artist run spaces and site-specific installations? Is this some-thing your recently getting acquainted with or something that’s been very familiar asan artist?My career has been one of exhibiting primarily, but not solely, at artist run spaces. There is a pay off between smaller budgets for production/fabri-cation and the lack of pressure for sales.

I see that you run an art space in the south of France, called Non-Objectif Sud, what was your main objective in creating this space?To have an engagement with other artists and their ideas which stand outside of my own studio practice.

Who specifically and what type of work do you usually bring into this space?There is a predilection towards forms of abstrac-tion but not in any dogmatic or ideological way. We are open to showing all forms of art practice. This year we are showing works of filmmakers, sound artists as well as painters and sculptors. Some shows can be defined by attitude rather than style.

How has this space evolved since its creation in 2005?Every year has its own identity so I do not look back as a linear progression but as individual shows and artist collaborations. We have devel-oped more sophisticated forms of fundraising and have expanded the space by degrees.

What do you see next for Non-Objectif Sud?We hope to develop the residency program for spring and autumn to bookend our summer shows.

In relation to your own art practice, when us-ing mirrors and reflective materials, in what ways are you looking to redefine or change ones perception of a space?The use of mirrors in my work came out of a search for a new ground in painting and one which would interact directly with light, space, and the viewer as one experience. It was an opportunity to work with solid color, i.e. the monochrome without the constraints of traditional painting formats as glass can be easily cut into any twodimensional shape. Working with mirrors eventually led me to gilding techniques that can be applied to a vari-ety of surfaces with different emotional contents. Gilding as its own historical narrative connected with history of painting which I am interested in.

Where do you see your own practice going in the next few years?My next solo show coming up France in May 2012 will be an opportunity to explore my iPhone paintings which I have been playing with but yet to exhibit formally.

What inspires you? Inventing a world of our own, where we can make our own rules and the ‘rules of the house’. Making a pro-posal to shift the focus of perception slightly from ‘only’ business to art.

What do you love about owning a gallery?Art as a means of everyday life, like eating, drinking, sleeping and making an offer to society.

I remember that we talked about the large windows and how the community often looks in. How important is the community to your gallery?The community is important to our artspace, it’s not only about mak-ing business, art and life belongs together for us, since we also live at Hebel_121.Neighbors can see us doing everyday work like they do; neighbors can watch, how as artists we build up and take down art; they can see how art is made or installed, ‘being constructive’[;] they can talk to us or the artists if they want to.

How do you choose what kind of art to show? Is there anything in particular that catches your eye?We mainly choose artist[s] from abroad, because exchange is impor-tant at Hebel_121. People/neighbors can meet artists from all over the world, they make the experience, that artists/people are different, but the same all over the world. We mainly choose art, which is space related and/or site specific; it can be more architectural or more atmo-spherical, conceptual and/or minimal. The two big windows ‘over the edge’ call for it since you can perceive art from the inside out or from the out-side in, with natural or artificial light, day and night.

Any advice for art students?Start an artspace of your own with one or two friends, out of your studio, out of your apartment, out of your room; don’t spend too much time and energy on your art ‘business’.

Gerda Maise&Daniel Gottin

Owners & Artists of Hebel_121