Daniel & Geo Fuchs and Deni Horvatić – photo basel 2024

photo basel 2024 with Daniel & Geo Fuchs and Deni Horvatić

Photography has established itself within museums and the art market within the last decade. During Art Basel week, photo basel wants to enhance and nourish the creative trade of all the major art players within and around photography. It is Switzerland’s first and only international art fair dedicated to photography based art and brings together galleries from around the world in a unique, authentic setting. For its collectors, visitors or buyers – photo basel is an active platform which fosters the dialog between all actors of the photography community and beyond.

At photo basel 2024 we are presenting the internationally renowned German artist Daniel (* 1966) & Geo (* 1969) Fuchs  and the young Croatian photographer Deni Horvatić (*1991) with works on the theme “Beauty of Human Nudeness”.

Daniel & Geo Fuchs will be showing a selection of works from their latest series “Greeks & Romans” as a world premiere. These works focus on the aesthetics of Greek and Roman sculptures that were once created to perfectly represent human beauty, strength and heroism. We live in a time in which, on the one hand, nudity is on public display, but on the other, a prudery is awakening that censors nudity even in art, such as Michelangelo’s David in Dubai, Florida or even Scotland. Nevertheless, the depiction of nudity remains something special and attractive, which is also what makes sculpture collections so appealing. By taking digital photographs of the antique sculptures, modifying the images and, above all, altering the colours, the artists change the message, modernise the view and thus the impressiveness for the viewer.

Further, two works from Deni Horvatić’s “SCAN” series will be shown and his AR work “Invitation”. In his life-size photographs of scenes from everyday life, the artist minimises the distance between the environment and the people portrayed by choosing a particular angle of view: Shot from below, the images hide as much as they reveal, denying the viewer a glimpse of the part of the body we most immediately associate with identity – the face. The way they are shot, the lighting and the black background make the works reminiscent of a modern interpretation of old masters, especially Caravaggio, and one wonders whether they are photographs or paintings. In his AR work, Deni explores the multifaceted journey of self-discovery during the process of growing up, navigating the complexities of conforming to societal expectations while striving for universal acceptance. The project incorporates a dual dimension—both tangible and augmented—allowing viewers to delve deeper through augmented reality by scanning a wool carpet with a QR code linked to the printed image.

In the “Greeks & Romans” and “SCAN” series as well as in the AR work, the artists each explore the theme of “naked human beauty” in a very different way and using a different visual language. The result is an aesthetic symbiosis that combines modern digital photography and techniques with antiquity and the art of the 16th/17th century.

Further information about Daniel & Geo Fuchs and Deni Horvatić.