Francis Alÿs

Fabiola, 2011
Foreword by Maja Oeri, texts by Lynne Cook, Dario Libero Gamboni

Schaulager, Basel, 2011

Publisher: Schwabe Verlag,.

Softcover, 88 pages, 21 × 29.7 cm,  English and German

The catalogue documents the exhibition of Francis Alÿs’ collection of paintings of Saint Fabiola in the magnificent rooms of Kirschgarten House in Basel, staged here at the artist’s suggestion. Alÿs built up this collection of Fabiolas over many years. The conceptual artist used great cunning and aesthetic sense to position the portraits of the saint into the bourgeois context of this house, once a city mansion and now a museum of 19th century upper middle class domestic culture. Full-page illustrations of the rooms as they were used vividly showcase the art project. Essays by the exhibition curator Lynne Cooke and art historian Dario Gamboni provide in-depth analysis alongside the documentation, rounded off by information for further reading.