Wanda Mihuleac (b. 1946, Bucharest, Romania – lives in Paris) reminds us that ‘in the word re-enchantment we hear CHANT, to sing’. In her tautological poems, the artist writes words with the substance they are made of, disrupting the distinction between language and materiality. Poetry, but also storytelling and mythology, offer a different way of relating to the world and to access knowledge, through metaphor and symbol. Drawing inspiration from Slavic folklore, the artist duo Dorota Gawęda (b. 1986, Lublin, Poland – lives in Basel) & Eglė Kulbokaitė (b. 1987, Kaunas, Lithuania – lives in Basel) propel Południca, a mythological figure that haunts field workers, into the age of artificial intelligence. The resulting mirage-installation, which features chimerical flowers, blurs the distinction between nature, the human, and technology. Suspended from the ceiling, Bianca Bondi’s mobile sculptures catch the light which dances across the room, casting spells in the exhibition space. In the artist’s own words: ‘There is no desert wind blowing in the gallery, no plants actually growing, but we can imagine the scene and find ourselves confronted with fiction. And this scene will transport us to a fictional realm that gives us the tools to better cope with the reality in which we live.’

A common thread weaves through the different artistic approaches. The artists bring the quality of transparency into the exhibition space: through wind suggested by Bianca Bondi, glass with which Bianca Bondi and Shuyi Cao create or the perfume diffused by Dorota Gawęda & Eglė Kulbokaitė’s olfactory artwork. It is also pictured by water flowing through Ariana Papademetropoulos’s interiors and Manuel Mathieu’s aqueous, diluted textures. Transparency is also suggested by the shadows in Wanda Mihuleac’s poems and in Teresa Pągowska’s paintings, as well as the negative space treated by Teresa Pągowska through her use of bare canvas, while also being a major compositional tool for Olga Grotova who experiments with photographic processes.

Transparency also emerges at a conceptual level as a referent for invisibility. Angelika Loderer explores the imperceptible networks of mycelium, the ‘internet of forests’ that allows different species to communicate with each other, while Eglė Kulbokaitė & Dorota Gawęda’s translucent screens remind us of the omnipresence of the virtual realm. Through processes of layering and revelation, Olga Grotova makes visible the lost histories of communities and families in the former Soviet states, rather than established narratives dominated by the ‘history of great men’. Angelika Loderer’s works include both images from the everyday and of endangered species. The artist shares: ‘By exposing yourself you get vulnerable but I think this is perhaps what re-enchantment is, we need vulnerability. We all put everything in concrete, toughen up but it makes us the opposite of vulnerable. It makes us anxious.’

The curatorial format allows a sensory journey through Wanda Mihuleac’s poems. In the first room, she sculpts shadows, slit, water, earth, fire and reflection – words that resonate with the other works on view, linking the artists together. In the last room, works by Dorota Gawęda & Eglė Kulbokaitė, Olga Grotova and Bianca Bondi interact with the natural light, attempting to capture a process of enchantment.