Karin Borer | 2021 Research Trip
Mainland China | Visual Arts
2021 — Visual Arts
Nationality: Switzerland
Trip location: TBD
Partner organization: TBD
Born in 1981, lives and works in Basel, Switzerland. She studied at the Zurich University of Arts (ZHdK) and at the Basel Academy of Art and Design (HGK). She has received the grant “Werkbeitrag Kunstkredit Kanton Basel-Stadt” and the studio residency in Berlin from the City of Basel.
Her work has been shown at Kunsthalle Basel (CH), Kunstverein Freiburg (DE), Karlin Studios Futura Prag (CZ), Kunsthaus Langenthal (CH), Stadtgalerie Bern (CH), Kunst Raum Riehen (CH), Milieu Bern (CH) (solo), La Rada Locarno (CH), Urgent Paradise Lausanne (CH), Schwarzwaldallee Basel (CH), Ausstellungsraum Klingental Basel (CH) and other galleries.
In her artistic practice, she recontextualizes samples from the fields of power, system, optimization and ritual – elements that have emerged from the strange relationship between man and environment. She places these observations, which often originate from botany, in the form of fragments in atypical states in order to generate new syntheses. With these decontextualizations, she provokes new realities. Her works are often presented in the form of objects and installations.
In China, she will focus on traditional techniques that are used to bring the landscape into visible form – into this natural-looking environment. In Chinese gardens, many miniature trees are present, whose growth is limited and controlled by constantly cutting back roots, shoots and leaves, so that young plants have the appearance of an aged tree. The gardens represent the ideal universe by means of signs, metaphors and symbols – miniaturized, idealized landscapes.
