Basel | ArtRegion: Basel - Oberrhein

Weiss Falk

Mitchell Kehe: The difference between building and growth

11. Februar – 11. März 2023

Art Basel Week Hours (10-16 June 2024): ★Tue 18 Opening Tina Braegger Wed-Sun 11-20

15 Orient is excited to present Mitchell Kehe’s third solo-show, The Difference Between Building and Growth, at Weiss Falk Basel. This is Kehe’s first European solo-exhibition and it explores the idea of omitting specific experiences from the past and how this relates to the larger cultural environment. The exhibition questions how we create a collective memory and highlights the power of the individual in deciding what gets „repressed“. By delving into the ideas of Freudian analysis, the show offers an interesting exploration into the conscious and unconscious mind.

An analogy can be drawn between how memory works and the individual’s relationship to the collective: both have ideological mechanisms of exclusion and repression of elements that are undesirable or out of place in the social landscape. Repression is not limited to the individual, but is a reflection of the political environment. The gaps, cracks and ellipses in our individual histories that deny access to accepted societal memories (like those big events and defining moments) indicate the current constraints of the historical present. Thus, repression is not limited to the individual, but is a product of a collective political landscape.