Sculpture growing at Unlimited, many Italian artists

Art Basel week opens on Monday, one of the most important events for the European and American art market for over 50 years. The first, eagerly awaited event of the event is the inauguration of Unlimited, a section reserved for monumental-sized works, designed for purchases by museums and foundations, rather than the average collector, starting with the prices, which range from at least 50 thousand euros up to millions. For everyone, it is the most spectacular part, but also the one that requires the greatest effort on the part of the galleries, 92 this year with 67 works. “This year too, the gallery owners have proposed very ambitious projects,” reported Giovanni Carmine , Italian-Swiss curator, responsible for the section, as well as director of the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen. “For galleries it is a unique showcase, but the times mean that the reflections on what to bring are even more thoughtful. For example, there are few video works this year, a medium that presents greater difficulty in obtaining a good return on investment, although there is a beautiful work by Walid Raad”.

Mimmo Paladin

This does not mean that we will only find painting, on the contrary. “Compared to past years, I have noticed a great return to sculpture” says Giovanni Carmine. “I do not know why in terms of the market, but on a curatorial level it was a great challenge to install many works without the box around them, generating an adequate space for the works and for the public”.

And even the painting at Unlimited is installation. The youngest artist, the Swiss painter Andriu Deplazes , born in 1993, worked for the first time on five panels and a length of eight meters, dealing with current themes such as war, refugees, climate (presented by Peter Kilchmann at 200 thousand francs).

The themes of the present are the backdrop to many works. “There is a sort of humanism as a common thread,” commented Carmine. “Many works address existential and identity issues, the search for a utopia and the confrontation with today’s socio-political issues.”

Valerio Adami

Let's think about this year's largest work: a series of 80 sculptures by Atelier Van Lieshout, which accompany the visitor from the entrance to the exit and represent the continuous journey of humanity towards a better, albeit unlikely, future. Pistoletto, not new to Unlimited, also refers to his utopias of coexistence, while Marinella Senatore , who is here for the first time with a 34-meter luminaria, creates a space for empowerment (presented by Mazzoleni at 550 thousand euros).