There’s a moment that I absolutely live for as a journalist, when I’m on the ground at a major industry event, and suddenly realize it’s all happening. There’s a banana on the wall and the price is well, bananas. Brad Pitt is taking selfies with everyone brave enough to ask. This year in Basel, it was Kanye West, aka Ye, clearing out the darkened viewing room for Vanessa Beecroft’s Untitled (Izanami) to watch the film starring his wife, Bianca Censori.
I was severely jet lagged, fresh off a connecting flight from Newark through Paris that involved on-the-ground bus transfers between terminals in not one but two continents. But the rest of my time at the early access opening of Art Basel Unlimited, the fair’s spectular installation of large-scale works, became a single-minded mission to capture photos and video of West for CULTURED‘s Instagram account.
Despite 12 years at Artnet News (and three before that as an editorial assistant at Art in America), this is my first time going to Basel. I have to admit, even as a seasoned art fair veteran, I found the fair intimidating, with 290 booths stretching across two floors of the Messeplatz. (I was reminded of the only time Artnet sent Ben Davis to Art Basel Miami Beach, and his dispatch was a tongue-in-cheek homage to whoever had designed that years “maze.”) Somehow, I came away with a few highlights.
“The Stars of Art Basel: Four Artists Having a Moment on the Fair Floor” for CULTURED
The tip off about West came from an Unlimited organizer, who told me she was waiting for his arrival scheduled for 6 p.m., and that West had actually paid for the film’s presentation at Basel. (Milan gallery Lia Rumma is showing the work, but reportedly forwarded all the invoices to West.) His bodyguard, my source helpfully pointed out, was already on duty, planted outside the installation. I decided to wait inside, where I could watch the film.
Beecroft, of course, is an Italian performance artist who has become known for her collaborations with West, which date back to 2008. Their previous projects together include a sculptural art installation for West’s 2014 wedding to Kim Kardashian and Nebuchadnezzar: A Kanye West Opera, which Beecroft directed in 2019.
Nudity is often a major component of Beecroft’s work, and her newest project is no exception. I wasn’t able to watch the whole movie, but segments I saw included row upon row of naked women in white body paint and curly white wigs. The work is projected behind a sculptural installation with a white hospital bed and larger-than-life, white plaster sculptures of body parts, including a headless reclining female nude and smaller fragments, all taken from the film set.
It was Beecroft who immediately clocked me approaching West and Censori, and said I could not photograph or video them. I explained that I was a journalist, but she was not impressed, insisting “I was not going to get the scoop of the year.” Not if you keep me from doing my job, girl!
Eventually, West and Censori were joined by French fashion designer Michèle Lamy. The couple spent about an hour inside the installation before checking out more Unlimited installations, including Tracey Emin’s salvaged beach hut, Knowing My Enemy, and Eva Jospin’s incredible carved cardboard forest, Panorama.
Censori did politely demur when I asked to speak about her role in Beecroft’s film, but I also spotted West taking a photo with a child. (On a scale of ultra-friendly Usher to ultra-standoffish Leonardo DiCaprio, I think they fall somewhere in the middle in terms of art world celebrity sightings.) The two even returned the next day, allowing visitors to watch Untitled (Izanami) alongside them and chatting with artist Jammie Holmes and PR maven Megan Maguire Steele.
The film is inspired by the Japanese goddess of creation and death—the titular Izanami—and the Greek myth of the abduction of Persephone by Hades. Beecroft shot the film at a semi-abandoned hotel in Tokyo.
West’s appearance in Basel comes after football club FC Basel canceled his planned June concert at St. Jakob-Park, stating that to host the rapper would not be “in accordance with our values.” West, who is bipolar, has become increasingly controversial in recent years due to a number of antisemitic remarks.