The Art Basel OVR Sep 2021 presentation The Pose / The Self features a curated selection of works from the mid-1960s to 2021 across photography, sculpture and painting by artists of the gallery. Through performative acts and narrative contexts, the works engage with questions of identity, race and gender as well as the role of the artist.

The presentation features photographic works by Diane Arbus, Victor Burgin, Allana Clarke, Jürgen Klauke, Tarrah Krajnak, Anthony McCall and Joanna Piotrowska, and includes a large-scale woodcut by Christiane Baumgartner, sculptures by Andrea Geyer, and painting by James White.

The works make reference to the history of art and photography, on the one hand, and to the artists’ identity on the other. In the cases of Allana Clarke, Jürgen Klauke, Tarrah Krajnak and Anthony McCall, the artists are performing or reproducing poses with their own bodies, while they are also depicting themselves as author of the photographs. Andrea Geyer reclaims institutional history to challenge female stereotypes. Joanna Piotrowska and Victor Burgin investigate human relationships drawing on feminist psychology among other sources. Christiane Baumgartner and James White explore the nature of mediated images and experiences.

All of these questions are ongoing negotiations, systematically sounded out in interaction with the viewers in the exhibition space – virtual or physical – and each time anew.