Sculpted Adornment

Sculpted Adornment is an immersive exhibition featuring new works by Clare Goodwin alongside guest contributions from Aina Rea Aliotta, Valentin Carron, Sophie Jung, Shana Moulton, Claudia & Julia Müller, Markus Müller, and Lucca Cora Süss.

Clare Goodwin stages a dialogue between the historical spaces of Villa Renata, a 19th-century building, and contemporary art. With her concept of “Constructive Nostalgia,” she transforms the villa into a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ by inviting artists she considers as “elective affinities” to her own artistic strategy. The exhibition focuses on works that acquire new layers of meaning through the repurposing of everyday objects. Together with her guests, Goodwin addresses social and political questions, inviting discussion through the transformation of furniture and everyday objects. She refers to the interiors she has arranges as “Stillscapes.”

Goodwin sees her assemblages as carriers of personal and social narratives. The objects she reinterprets in collage-form encourage engagement with social norms and conventions. The invited artists respond to these themes in their sculptural, cinematic, or performative contributions, altering or reinterpreting everyday objects. Their artistic research navigates the space between art and design, resulting in works that oscillate between sculpture and readymade.

The tour through the villa, its enchanting garden, and the later-added garage offers encounters with sculpture, installation, and video, while also paying homage to the building itself. Goodwin’s exhibition aims to imbue the villa’s spaces with imagined narratives through art, setting the building into a resonance. Performances, readings, and a bar installation make Villa Renata a lively meeting place throughout the exhibition’s duration.

Curators: Silvan Koller & Sandi Paucic

Opening times: 

Villa Renata
Socinstrasse 16
4051 Basel
info@villa-renata.ch

Fri 16-19
Sat-Sun 13-17

The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of performances and guided tours

Interview with Clare Goodwin in English and German