Instant Rumor

Instant Rumor started last year as an encounter between the six of us and our works, our objects and our actions, in an improvised show situation that was meant as an exercise, and led to questions that we wished to pursue together. We’ve been thinking of ways to develop a collective process based on improvisation exercises which involve voice, rhythm, text, walking, and a lot of talking and listening. This has been a project meant to delve into the implications of what it means to think as a group, about our individual practice in relation to others, about what we share and where we differ. This exhibition then becomes a glimpse, an environment born from our time spent together that brings back parts of the working process to generate poetic suggestions in the present: Ice objects carry and mark time, slowly dripping and trans- forming into a trace. They disappear to appear in a different form. Pre-existing shelving units suggest walking a space side- ways. The shelves hint at the inherent failure of accumulation and play in the dynamic between functionality and uselessness, embodied by the act of hoarding and, in this case, displaying. A scent is impregnating the space. Flowers are slowly decaying and spreading the smell of summer end, converting to the pungent odor of the stagnant water in the vase. The aroma diffusers are dark as they come from the ground. These vessels carry the water and the hydrolates, as delicate and volatile as the plants want them to be. Clothing and shoes become carriers of intentions, traces of past or future actions, and objects suspended between longing, projection, and everyday life. They transform into expressions, embodying the tension between personal narratives and collective experiences, evoking emotions that resonate beyond their everyday utility. Coming in audiovisual, performative and sculptural ways, thoughts on floating and falling appear: passing time, whistling, having one‘s feet in water, holding a bottle, calling a friend, and singing a song, creating a moment of relief, a moment in between, a moment off time. Instant Rumor is a compendium of notes which work as stories coming in waves, like thermal currents or the ripples of water. It talks about hearts, about moments of affection and rest, and about the silent transformations that happen behind the interactions of small things. Supported by Abteilung Kultur Basel-Stadt and the Hans und Renée Müller Meylan Stiftung. The year‘s program is supported by Kanton Basel-Stadt and the Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia.