Nairy Baghramian
collection box, 2004

Artist
Nairy Baghramian

Title
collection box

Year of creation
2004

Technique and dimensions
Plexiglass, painted metal and cord, 40 x 50 x 30 cm, edition of 3

Year of acquisition
2008

Acquisition of the foundation

For Nairy Baghramian, production of art is inseparable from the framing situations of her exhibition. The artist often approaches them from the edges, passageways or corridors and marks places in the room with her works instead of dominating it. In her sculptures, Baghramian subtly uses materials with different tactile properties and historical connotations, refers to modern and postmodern discourses in architecture, design and art and questions mechanisms of institutional power.

As minimalist as Baghramian's works may seem, they are associated with an interpretation of the situations encountered, to which they are not limited. This also applies to Baghramian's collection box, which welcomes the audience as a starting point for the exhibition Under Construction.

Originally created for the foyer of the Kunsthalle Basel, the small-format object made of white-painted metal and acrylic glass protruding from the wall is designed to engage in a dialogue with its viewers and arouses different associations and expectations: for example, it allows objects from sacred contexts to be donated - or collection containers, architectural constructions or folding boxes. However, none of these interpretations is concretely tenable. The opening of the collection box seems to symbolize how permeable it is to attributions. Contrasting images and materials – an open lid meets an empty volume, acrylic glass that allows a view to be seen meets non-transparent metal and a cord – creates what Baghramian describes as “ambivalent abstraction”.

-ak