Vitrine is delighted to present Tim Etchells’ first solo exhibition in Switzerland and the second with the gallery. ‘Open Mind’ brings together a new neon installation with a new multi-channel sound installation. Etchells’ practice is concerned with tropes of performativity, liveness and presence.

In a series of new works for this exhibition, Etchells pursues ideas of ‘speaking out’, testing fragments of language as sculptural and sound intervention in the unique public context of Vitrine, Basel.

Binaries of exposure and concealment, construction and deconstruction, appearance and disappearance are explored throughout his practice and through a framework of LCD monitors, computer screens, the stage, the space of a page, a gallery, a found site, a street, or a private space. Etchells’ interventions in these spaces and moments explore the relationship between the viewer and work in a context where systems in language and culture are interrogated for their productive or constraining effects.

Etchells will use Vitrine’s unique architecture in the round and 24-hour visibility on the public square to position new site-responsive works on the boundary between gallery and public space. The works will be seen and heard; speaking and repeating phrases, instructions and questions to viewers and passersby. The exhibition and these new works reveal the significance of the adjoining environments on the artists’ practice and his explorations in language.

Vitrine is delighted to present Tim Etchells in Basel at the same time as his solo show at Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany, and exhibition ‘What Can Be Seen’ (with Vlatka Horvat) at Museums Sheffield, UK, and following numerous recent high-profile projects in 2016, including: his solo exhibition for the launch of ‘Tate Exchange’, Tate Modern; his video installation ’Eyes Looking’ on Times Square, NYC; presentations at FIAC and ARTISSIMA 2016; and touring Forced Entertainment productions as a result of receiving the prestigious Spalding Gray Award and the International Ibsen Award 2016.

Tim Etchells (b.1962 Sheffield, UK) is currently Professor of Performance and Writing at Lancaster University. He has led the performance group Forced Entertainment, based in Sheffield, since its inception in 1984. Forced Entertainment are widely considered to be one of the greatest British theatrical exports of the past 30 years, credited with producing some of the most innovative and challenging theatre of the era to great acclaim throughout the world. In 2016, Etchells was awarded the Spalding Grey Award as well as the International Ibsen Award for his work with Forced Entertainment.

Solo exhibitions include: ‘The Give & Take’, Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, London (2016); ‘More Noise’, Bloomberg SPACE (2016); ‘For Now’, Plymouth Arts Centre, UK (2015); ‘The Facts On The Ground’, Vitrine, London, UK (2015); ‘Live Forever’, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, USA (2014); ‘What is, and What is Possible’, Jakopič Gallery, Ljubljana, SI, (2013); ‘Neon Friday’, Battersea Arts Centre (BAC), London, UK (2012); ‘From Afar’, Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, PL, (2011); ‘Tim Etchells’, Gasworks, London, UK, (2010); and ‘Fog Game’, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bramen, DE, (2010). Etchells poster project ‘And For The Rest’ has been created and presented in: Brussels (2014), Basel (2015) and Athens (2016); and he created a new series of posters ‘Vacuum Days (Utrecht)’ presented across the city (May 2016). Group exhibitions include: ‘Process, Performance, Presence’, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2016); ‘Risk’, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2015); ‘Periodic Tales: The Art of the Elements’ at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK (2015); ‘The Alternative Document’, Project Space Plus, University of Lincoln, UK (2015); ‘The Cipher and the Frame’, Cubitt Gallery, London, UK (2015); ‘Mirror City’, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2014); ‘Version Control’, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2013); ‘Acts of Voicing’, Württembergischer, Kunstverein Stuttgart, DE (2012); and ‘Family Matters: The Family in British Art’, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich, UK (2011). Alongside this, Etchells work was involved in the Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone, UK (2014) and has also appeared in numerous biennales including Gotenburg International Biennale, Sweden (2011) and Manifesta 7, Rovereto, Italy (2008).

Tim Etchells presented a solo booth with Vitrine at Dallas Art Fair (2016) and in Perf4m at ARTISSIMA Turin, Italy (November 2016). His collaboration with violinist Aisha Orazbayeva ‘Seeping Through (Decouverte)’ was performed at FIAC, Palais De Decouverte, Paris (2016). His video installation ’Eyes Looking’ took over Times Square, New York, throughout October 2016, commissioned as part of Times Square Arts Alliance ‘Midnight Moments’ series.