Exhibition Marie Matusz's dark spatial visions at the Kunsthalle Basel
SDA
16.1.2025 - 15:22
![The works of Basel-based artist Marie Matusz at the Kunsthalle Basel are gloomy and initially off-putting.](https://production-livingdocs-bluewin-ch.imgix.net/2025/01/16/c05b33e7-717c-405f-bcc1-bd8ba685573c.jpeg?w=994&auto=format)
Kunsthalle Basel is showing enigmatic, dark installations by Basel-based artist Marie Matusz in the darkened skylight rooms. It is the first exhibition curated by the new Kunsthalle director Mohamed Almusibli.
Anyone entering the usually light-flooded skylight hall of the Kunsthalle Basel will find themselves in a completely different environment. Marie Matusz has eliminated pretty much everything atmospheric from the magnificent room: The skylight window is darkened, the noble parquet floor covered with gray tarpaulins.
Apart from a few abstract murals, the hall is dominated by three large cubes that serve as box-like frames for Plexiglas panels painted with abstract gray patterns and indecipherable set pieces of writing.
Glaring spotlights create angular shadows on the walls, while sounds can be heard from loudspeakers that meander between a soundscape from the forest and tones from industrial workshops.
"Towards the disappearance"
As a counterpoint to the installation works with the somewhat explanatory subtitle "Towards Vanishing", Matusz has placed a small, badly damaged painting from 1752 by an unknown artist from the Kunstverein's collection. A caricatured procession of noble gentlemen can be glimpsed behind the soiled surface.
Matusz's enigmatic art cosmos continues in the neighboring room. In front of a large wall mirror pierced with a black hole, the artist has placed three segments of a cast-iron tube that look like the discovery of a prehistoric skeleton.
The artist, who was born in Toulouse in 1994, calls her largest solo exhibition to date "Reservoir" in Basel, where she lives and works. At first glance, these installations are characterized by an unwieldy defensiveness. It takes time for the subversive play with the architectural surroundings to develop into a winning experience.
The exhibition "Marie Matusz: Reservoir" can be seen until April 27.