10 July – 4 October 2026
Opening: Thursday 9 July, 7 pm
Olaf Holzapfel x Raul Walch: Ideal Forms and Raw Material
The exhibition “Ideal Forms and Raw Materials” by Olaf Holzapfel and Raul Walch explores questions of architecture, materials and communal living. It takes as its starting point historical and contemporary conceptions of building as an open, malleable process. Inspired by textile structures, half-timbered architecture and organic building methods, the artists have created walk-in spaces made of wickerwork, clay, denim fabrics and movable elements. The exhibition brings together architectural, craft-based and ecological themes and invites visitors to view space not as a rigid form, but as a living structure in a state of constant change.
The exhibition catalogue is available to download here.
Olaf Holzapfel, Linde Tilleul, 2024, Courtesy of the artist, Knust Kunz Gallery, München and Xippas Gallery, Genève © Studio Olaf Holzapfel
10 July - 4 October 2026
Opening: Thursday, 9 July, 7 pm
Julia Steiner
The Swiss artist Julia Steiner (*1982 in Büren zum Hof, Switzerland, lives and works in Basel) combines expansive drawings, which are created site-specifically, with installations and sculptural works. Using black gouache, blunt brushes and without any preliminary drawings, she creates large-format works that deal with fundamental themes from nature. A central leitmotif is the examination of transience, whereby repetition and care emerge as constant, universal principles of order. Julia Steiner has received several awards, including the Manor Art Prize and the Swiss Art Award.
The exhibition is sponsored by Kreissparkasse Esslingen-Nürtingen, the Canton of Basel-Landschaft, Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
The exhibition catalogue is available to download here.
Julia Steiner „fluttering lights“ 2024, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne-Zurich-Ardez. Exhibition view of Arcadia, Bally Foundation, Lugano, Switzerland, 2024-2025 © Andrea Rossetti
Since February 2019
BELLE & APHRODITE
Augmented Reality
by Barbara Herold
In the app BELLE & APHRODITE for smartphone or tablet, it is possible to experience a walk-in audio-visual metamorphosis of virtual plants.
The 3D plant BELLE extends across the entire Merkelpark. As an interactive form-cloud, it leads visitors, on the basis of data regarding their location and movement, to a virtual rose at the centre of the park.
APHRODITE was designed for the skylit atrium. In recurrent audio-visual loops, the 3D installation develops into a Phalaenopsis, a familiar type of orchid. APHRODITE can be viewed from all perspectives and, in its overlapping of simulation space and actual space, plays with the experience of abstraction, proportional relationships, proximity and distance.
Barbara Herold (*1977) directs her attention to the shaping of reality through the media. She investigates structures and phenomena which have established themselves through the influence of media technology on society; she develops her own systems on the basis of prevalent design practices such as computation and algorithms. Her works arise in the dynamic field between analogue and digital technology.
Download App BELLE - APHRODITE
