Kimsooja’s 'Bottari 1999-2019‘ (2019) is installed on Münsterplatz in Basel as part of Kunsttage Basel. The over six meters long shipping container is painted in the traditional Korean Obangsaek colours alluding to Kimsooja’s life as a nomadic artist and to freedom of mobility. Including the artist’s personal belongings from her apartment in New York which she has left in 2019 after 20 years the work is a continuation of her well-known concept of the 'bottari', traditional Korean bedcovers made into bundles by women of all classes, to wrap and protect one’s most important belongings, often when a native place had to be left behind.

Kunsttage Basel is a broad-based, temporary association of museums, art institutions, exhibition spaces and galleries in Basel and Baselland. The aim of the joint activity is to support and revitalize the cultural life of the region, to encourage the public to experience art and culture in the city and in the countryside, and to increase awareness of the contribution of modern and contemporary art under the current crisis conditions. It consists of exhibitions and events as well as projects in public space from downtown Basel to the Dreispitz-Areal in Münchenstein.

Leiko Ikemura has been invited to Kunsthalle Rostock to create a dialogue between her own works, strongly influenced by her East Asian background, and works by different artists from Eastern Germany or Eastern Europe. 

On view are 44 works by Ikemura, including painting, sculpture, watercolours as well as photographs from a series entitled "Fiori Mori" (2020) which has never been exhibited before. From the museum's collection Ikemura has selected works by Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Sabine Moritz and Kate Diehn-Bitt. Also included are artists like A.R. Penck, Magdalena Jetelová or Alicja Kwade. Brought into dialogue these different artistic positions address topics such as migration, interculturality and identity.

Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe is presenting an impromptu exhibition over the summer consisting of works of their collection, including Christian Boltanski, Leiko Ikemura and Sean Scully amongst others. The show addresses a current discussion about the term “systemic importance”, which automatically implies “systemic un-importance”, and what would happen to society if only the relevant things remained.

Kimsooja’s video performance work "Cities on the Move: 2727 kilometers Bottari Truck“ (1997, Korea) is currently on view at the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre - NiMAC.

The touring exhibition "Getting Across“ is organized in collaboration with the Goethe Institute Cyprus and focuses on the topic of borders and migration and their impact on individuals.

The video documents Kimsooja's journey through Korea in 1997 sitting on top of a truck loaded with Bottari. These bundles, made with traditional Korean bedcovers, wrap and protect one’s most important belongings, often when a native place has to be left behind. 

A set of 20 watercolors by Bernd Koberling from last summer is part of the exhibition „Flora, Fauna & Kroppens tunna skal“ at Nordiska Akvarellmuseet in Sweden. Koberling creates his watercolours – a technique that he continues to use to this day - during his annual visits to Iceland. This unique and extraordinary landscape exerts a special influence on the artist and has been an important subject of his painting since the 1960s. The fissured, rugged fjords of the eastern coast of Iceland have become the artist’s second studio since 1977, every year for several months. Here he brings to paper in flowing colours, his impressions of the volcanism and water abundance of the island's landscape.

“In Praise of Light“ by Leiko Ikemura is on view at St. Matthäus church in Berlin. The high windows of the church building are covered by the artist’s abstract drawings, subtly transforming the light inside the historistic architecture. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Liberation Day they remind of the stained glass windows before the church's destruction in 1945. Ikemura’s bronze sculpture “Memento Mori“ in the central nave gives a face to the horrors of history. An absorbing and meditative projection of her paintings fading towards the ceiling can be experienced in the choir.

Wanås Konst Sculpture Park presents a solo exhibition by Kimsooja with site-specific installations, video works and paintings. Interweaving with the surrounding nature the exhibition becomes a space for stillness and introspection. At its core is a planting project in which some of the artist's main interests are united. Flax is cultivated on site creating a conceptual link between agriculture, textiles and painting. In continuation of her well known "Laundry Woman" series, Kimsooja makes use of traditional Swedish textiles that are installed in the Sculpture Park's beech wood forest. Further key works of the artist like her emblematic "Bottari" are installed in the Wanås Art Gallery and in the foundation's historic hay barn Kimsooja has created a transcendent mirror floor installation.

With NEON DELIGHT, the Centre for International Light Art in Unna dedicates an exhibition to the material used most frequently in light art. From March 14 to August 16, the museum brings together the most well-known international artists working in neon-based light art in its unique, underground, raw spaces. Works from the 1960s to the present provide a representative overview of neon in light art.

Some of the participating artists are Tracey Emuin, Jeppe Hein, Brigitte Kowanz, Mario Merz, François Morellet, Jan van Munster, Maurizio Nannucci, Bruce Nauman, Bruno Peinado, Anselm Reyle, Bernardi Roig, Keith Sonnier, Olivia Steele, among others. 

Christian Boltanski’s installation ‘Animitas’ can be seen and heard at Sculpture Park Hellbrunn in Salzburg. The bell project was first shown in 2014 in the Chilean desert, subsequently in different locations in Japan, Scotland, Canada and Israel. The installation ‘Animitas’ in Salzburg consists of 120 Japanese chimes, each attached to spindly sticks – with each wind breeze producing a delicate sound, which Boltanski calls the “music of the souls”. Until now, these installations have been destroyed upon conclusion of a exhibition. However, the Salzburg version is expected to reside until September 2020, and appear in other locations after that.

On March 1, the 7th Annual Award of The Art Newspaper Russia took place. 2018 winners in categories “Museum of the Year”, “Exhibition of the Year”, “Book of the Year”, “Restoration of the Year” and “Personal Contribution” were announced at the Gostiny Dvor. 

The annual award of The Art Newspaper Russia is one of the most anticipated events in the art world, an acknowledgment of outstanding achievements in the field. The award highlights the past year's most significant events in Russian art both in Russia and abroad, as well as the work of patrons of the art in developing and preserving cultural heritage. The choice of winners was determined by both public response and the professional community's feedback. 

EXHIBITION OF THE YEAR - “Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. “Not everyone will be taken into the future.” Tate Modern (London). The State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg). The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow).

The exhibition of Ilya Kabakov and his wife and co-author from the late 1980s onwards, Emilia Kabakova, is an inspiring example of international cultural cooperation. From the very beginning, the project was intended for three museums: Tate Modern, the Hermitage and the Tretyakov Gallery (with the support of Novatek). The organizers state that this exhibition is the first large-scale retrospective of the founder of Moscow conceptualism, who became famous in the world as the one who invented the “total” installation. The exhibition includes works created by Ilya Kabakov during the last 60 years, from the 1960s to today.

The name of the project refers both to the mid-1970s text by Kabakov and to the installation of the same name and encourages the viewer to discuss the role and place of art in our life. At each museum, the exhibition had its own structure, since space was a key concept for Kabakov. The artists had several hundred exhibitions at leading museums around the world, while in Moscow and St. Petersburg there had been shows of separate installations. But the project “Not everyone will be taken into the future,” where the artist's evolution was examined from an academic and comprehensive perspective, strengthened Ilya Kabakov’ status of a classic of contemporary art.

The most famous “born in the USSR” artist in the world, Kabakov seriously influenced the post-Soviet art evolution. The fact that his works have been extensively shown to Russian viewer, is especially important today when the society dramatically rethinks the Soviet experience, which received a universal existentialist interpretation in Kabakov’s oeuvre. Commemorating the exhibition, the creative couple donated Ilya Kabakov's Moscow workshop at Sretensky Boulevard to the Tretyakov gallery. The artist used to work there from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. Now it will be a museum devoted to the emergence of Moscow conceptualism and its heroes.

KEWENIG is proud to present the most comprehensive catalogue on Ghada Amer's ceramic work. The book showcases pieces that Amer created during her residencies at Greenwich House Pottery, New York, in the years 2014 to 2017 as well as a photographic documentation of her most recent work in the studios of Cerámica Suro in Mexico. It is published through DISTANZ Verlag and contains texts by Justine Ludwig and Britta Schmitz as well as an interview with the artist by Sebastian Preuss.

Pedro Cabrita Reis's new installation is located in front of MAAT museum and consists of two illuminated aluminium towers and was commissioned by E.D.P. Foundation, Lisbon.

The Daniel and Florence Guerlain Drawing Prize, which has already showcased over thirty artists since its creation, this year pays tribute to three artists living in Europe. Their work will be on view at the Parisian Salon du Dessin, where the winner will be announced on the 22 March.