Les témoins oculistes. The sense of sight in art

Vorschau: geschrieben vor der Eröffnung

In 1970 Giuseppe Penone wore mirrored contact lenses that blinded him while reflecting his surroundings. That piece, Rovesciare i propri occhi, is one of around 100 works here on the sense of sight, from the Baroque to the last twenty years, across 850 square metres.

It is the fifth show in the museum's series on the senses, after smell, touch, taste and hearing. It covers light and darkness, mirrors, optical devices and invisibility. At Ivana Franke's piece you close your eyes and pulsating light makes pictures behind your eyelids that are yours alone. Zoe Leonard's backlit photographs take the sun itself as their subject, which under Basel's winter Hochnebel may be the most sun you see until March.

The tour ends with Olafur Eliasson's Who is afraid, where coloured light on the walls mixes with your own shadow. Entry is the standard CHF 18 ticket (CHF 12 students), Thursdays run until 9pm, and the vernissage on 1 December at 6:30pm is free with no booking.