Snake Charmer, 2021, Installationsansicht, in: MACABRE, Fondation Louis Vuitton (FR), 2021, Foto:Marc Domage. Courtesy of the artist und Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, Édouard Montassut, Paris
und Emalin, London.
When animation leaves the cinematic realm and turns into physical weight, screens cease to be mere displays; they become architectural bodies trapped in space. For his first institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland, Amsterdam-based artist Özgür Kar takes over Kunsthalle Basel with an expansive, multi-room theatrical installation that lays bare the eerie stillness of modern isolation.
Known for installations that merge minimalist line-drawn animation, sculpture, and dense auditory landscapes, Kar probes existential conditions of solitude, vulnerability, and lingering uncertainty. His figures—rendered with stark black contours on monumental, often horizontally placed or monolithic monitors—do not evolve across conventional narrative arcs. Instead, they are caught in relentless, looping cycles of speech and gestures: sighing, confessing, singing, or murmuring fragments of an interior monologue that blurs the boundary between quiet desperation and deadpan humor.
Death, 2021, Installationsansicht, in: MACABRE, Fondation Louis Vuitton (FR), 2021, Foto: MarcDomage. Courtesy of the artist und Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, Édouard Montassut, Paris
und Emalin, London.
Death’s Right Hand, 2022, Installationsansicht, in: HAND PLAY, Emalin offsite, 2022, Foto: TheoChristelis. Courtesy of the artist und Emalin, London.
Through this deliberate absence of progression, Kar reflects on mortality not as a distant event, but as an ongoing emotional and metaphysical state. Working closely with voice actors and contemporary composers, he embeds multi-layered sonic textures directly into the architecture of each room. The monitors become resonant vessels, turning the screen into a psychological threshold where the spectator is drawn into an uncomfortably intimate communion with these digital ghosts.
A graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Kar has rapidly cemented his status as one of the most vital voices in contemporary media art, with recent presentations spanning the Stedelijk Museum, M HKA Antwerp, The Renaissance Society in Chicago, and the Biennales of Sydney and Singapore.
HEAVY GROUND, 2024, Emalin Clerk’s House, London, Foto: Stephen James Photography. Courtesy ofthe artist und Emalin, London.
Death playing the clarinet (from DAWN), 2023, Installationsansicht, in: Breaking The Joints, SapiehaPalace, Vilnius (LT), 2025, Foto: Andrej Vasilenko. Courtesy of the artist, Edouard Montassut, Paris und
Emalin, London.
In stepping through Kunsthalle Basel’s historic halls—an institution that has championed radical, forward-looking art since 1872—Kar transforms the gallery into a resonant chamber of collective longing, where the absurdity of human existence meets moments of startling grace.
Ozgur Kar – photo by Gina FollyExhibition: Özgür Kar
Venue: Kunsthalle Basel @kunsthallebasel
Dates: 30 October 2026 – 24 January 2027
Artist: Özgür Kar @ozgurkar
Information: Available via kunsthallebasel.ch
