Cahn’s Quarterly 1/2022 English Edition
Editorial Dear readers To try out new things, to be inspired by other people, to share crazy ideas and to put them into practice – these are some of the most rewarding aspects of the art trade, even if they require a lot of hard work and commitment from the whole team. All these factors came together last autumn when Cahn Kunstraum on Steinentorstrasse in Basel opened its doors with a large retrospective of the French artist Laura Lamiel. A series of photographs by Serge Hasenböhler and an illuminating text by the art historian Manon Burg can be found on pp. 4-7 of this issue. The project, carried out in collaboration with Parisian gallery Marcelle Alix during Art Basel, was a success and attracted a very good audience. Representatives of the Centre Pompidou and the Fondation Pinault as well as of numerous German and Swiss institutions visited the exhibition and expressed great interest in the artist's work. Various prominent artists also found their way to Steinentorstrasse. I was particularly pleased that the room was fully accepted and valued for its authenticity. The industrial space, marked by decades of use, surprised visitors of the exhibition with its monumentality and its diverse types of light: daylight, warm and cold light as well as "light domes" entered into a lively dialogue with the works of art, far more than would have been possible with a clinical white cube aesthetic. For her installation Chant d'amour, Laura Lamiel chose a dark, eerie room in the basement, which contributed significantly to the powerful impression made by this work.
present the Christian and Hedy Schmassmann Collection of Ancient Silver there this spring. We discussed this collection in Cahn's Quarterly 4/2020 and it gives me great pleasure to be carrying out this project with the collector personally.
Laura Lamiel, drawing from Intimate Territories, 20202021. India ink, pen, red lipstick, and graphite on paper, 42 × 29.7 cm
This encourages us to orchestrate the Cahn Kunstraum with other projects by contemporary artists, probably about twice a year. An exhibition with the German Paris-based artist Katinka Bock is currently being planned. We will also continue our contemporary art projects in Paris. The extent to which the exhibition space on Steinentorstrasse lends itself to archaeological exhibitions will soon become clear when we
In view of the ongoing pandemic and the starkly different environment in which we find ourselves today, we are also in the process of repositioning ourselves. We will limit our attendance of fairs to the large ones, TEFAF Maastricht and Frieze Masters London, and maybe some small, local events. Furthermore, we aim to visit our clients more frequently and are also expanding our digital availability. Among other things, we are planning a live chat on our website, where you can ask us questions about objects or other topics, as well as a weekly live stream on Instagram, where you can discuss the objects that you are interested in with either me or the archaeologist Dr. Lilly Stoner and view them in front of the camera. We will inform you by e-mail when these new features go live. Of course, you are very welcome to visit the gallery in Basel in person, too. Whatever channel you choose, we look forward to seeing you!
Visit us in Maastricht www.tefaf.com/fairs/tefaf-maastricht
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