Experiencing Rossella Biscotti's The City at Kunsthaus Baselland in Basel
At Kunsthaus Baselland, contemporary art visitors have the opportunity to experience the first institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland by artist Rossella Biscotti. The exhibition centres around the premiere of her five-channel video installation titled The City, capturing extensive filming and research conducted at the Çatalhöyük archaeological site in Konya, Turkey.
Exploring Archaeological Layers and Modern Communities
Biscotti’s work investigates the fascinating parallels between the Neolithic community that inhabited one of the world's earliest known urban centers and the modern archaeological teams who spent decades unearthing it. Working closely with project leader Ian Hodder and an international group of researchers during the 2015 and 2016 excavation seasons, the artist documented how collaborative research methods reflect broader questions about human society, social structures, and our relationship with history.
The installation guides viewers through an immersive physical and acoustic landscape. The first part of the fifty-minute film captures the bustling, collective activity of the dig and its laboratories. The second half shifts dramatically following the abrupt closure of the 2016 season due to the attempted military coup d'état in Turkey, recording the quiet bureaucracy of departure and an empty, silent landscape. Alongside Biscotti's presentation, the institution also featured simultaneous solo exhibitions by Naama Tsabar and Rochelle Feinstein, curated by Ines Goldbach.
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