Residency Postcard from Basel
Paul Caporn
December 2014
The first three months of my residency has involved short periods of travel and research, interspersed with familiarising myself with Basel and meeting fellow artists.
I have undertaken a number of short trips out of Basel for about a week or so to places like Paris, Berlin, Rome, Venice, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Innsbruck and Kassel to visit art galleries, museums, theme parks and architecture. I have managed to go to a few Art and Architecture fairs including Basel, Venice, Berlin and Copenhagen art weeks. As you can imagine, I have been engaged in a lot of walking, looking, recording and sometimes a bit of thinking, drinking and writing … a complete cultural tourist for want of another way of describing my purpose and I’m okay with that – there is so much to see!
The last time I was in Europe was in 1989, before the Berlin Wall came down, so going to places like Berlin has been important – seeing the changes, restoration and building of the last 25 years. This idea of restoration has emerged as a bit of a focus. I noticed that 25 years ago a lot of monuments and historic buildings were under repair. This is also the case today.
Unlike many tourists who travel hundreds of miles only to be disappointed by seeing a place covered in scaffolding, I have begun to wish for it.
(I’m) enjoying the aesthetic relationship between the relative permanence of the monument or building and the temporary scaffolding, collecting many images of this occurrence.
I am looking forward to the next three months and hope for more monuments under repair.
Paul Caporn was the 2014 recipient of the Artsource Basel Exchange Residency
This article featured in the Artsource Newsletter, Summer 2014/15.
Artsource supports the practice of professional artists with the Global City Residencies.