The exhibition "the last days in chimalistac" at Kunsthalle Basel is the first solo show by Leonor Antunes in Switzerland.
The Portuguese-born, Berlin-based artist has used the entire ground floor gallery of the Kunsthalle to present an installation that encompasses a series of sculptural works engaging with the histories of 20th-century architecture, design and art. Antunes frequently takes as her starting point design objects, architectural details and art works belonging to the international Modern Movement. In her own sculptures, these earlier objects are reinterpreted in different materials and may thereby retain their original size or be scaled down. Most of the 20th¬century art works, objects and buildings addressed by Antunes are those that employ the grid as the organizational basis of their architectural volume, design or picture plane. The underlying presence of the grid becomes the most striking common feature of Antunes´s own sculptural pieces. These latter are realized in materials that have a natural or slightly antiquated touch to them, such as rope, wood, leather and brass, and use techniques often borrowed from vernacular traditions of craftsmanship originating from various locations, such as South America, Mexico and Portugal.

Leonor Antunes -