Revolt Against the Sun!
NEXT Generation 2025 Graduation Exhibition Bachelor and Master Institute Art Gender Nature HGK Basel FHNW
Maria Paz Aires, Alondra, Isabelle Benvenuti, Delphine Claire Bertrand, Emily Besel, Lenn Bjoerk, Á. Birna Björnsdóttir, Louie Blaser, Emma Bonven, Adraâ Anna Boukharta, Selina Camenzind, Brenda Brigitte Dell’Anna, Fanny Adriana Dunning, Lena Anika Ellenberger, Nora Aliena Friedlin, Niko Fuchs, Max Gisel, Nisha Greisser, Tim Heiniger, Alyona Hrekova, Dominik Ittin, Tina Janiashvili, Nico Jenni, Ramon Keimig, Lizz Keller, Robert Kirov, Riccy Kuno, Marc Lohri, Nolan Lucidi, Lisa Mazenauer, Ruowen Mei (左牵羊), Anastasia Müller, Noa Nola, Anyali Oviedo Castillo, Rondi Park, Irene Rainer, Linus Finn Riegger, Estéfana Román Matesanz, Léna Romand Lacrabère, Marilola Peter Saba, Barbara Signer, Yann Slattery, Thy Truong, Linus Weber, Valie Winter, Julie/Julot Wuhrmann, Chi-Hun Yang, Hsiao-Yen Yao, Ilja Zaharov
Curated by Margaux Bonopera and Chus Martínez
Curatorial Assistance Emily Harries
Opening Fri 29 August 2025, 5 – 9 pm
Exhibition 30 August – 14 September 2025
Finissage Sun 14 September 2025, 3 – 5 pm
Program
Fri 29 August 2025, 5 – 9 pm
Opening
5.15 pm welcoming and introduction by Ines Goldbach, Margaux Bonopera and Chus Martínez
Followed by performances by Delphine Claire Bertrand and Emma Bonven
Sun 14 September 2025, 3 – 5 pm
Finissage with performances
Guided tours (in German)
Sat 30 August 2025, 12.30 pm, curator’s tour with Margaux Bonopera (English)
Sun 31 August 2025, 12 pm, with Clara Soiron
Sun 31 August 2025, 2 pm, family sunday with walk-in studio, with Lara Thomann
Tue 2 September 2025, 12.15 pm, guided tour with lunch, with Leonie Vogt (subject to charges) → Registration required
Sun 7 September 2025, 11 am, Sunday Matinee with breakfast and guided tour at 12 pm, with Olga Madjinodji (subject to charges) → Registration required
Thur 11 September 2025, 6.30 pm, with Olga Madjinodji
Kunsthaus Baselland, Helsinki-Strasse 5, Münchenstein/Basel
Opening hours
Tue – Fri 11 am – 6 pm, Thur 11 am – 8 pm, Sat/Sun 11 am – 5 pm
During Kunsttage Basel: 30 – 31 August 2025, 11 am – 6 pm
kunsthausbaselland.ch
Admission free
The galleries of the Kunsthaus Baselland are wheelchair accessible (entry: Helsinki-Strasse).
Revolt Against the Sun! is part of the graduation event series NEXT Generation 2025 of the HGK Basel FHNW and of the Kunsttage Basel (29 – 31 August 2025).
nextgeneration.hgk.fhnw.ch
kunsttagebasel.ch
With this year’s graduation exhibition of the bachelor and master students, the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK Basel FHNW becomes the guest of the Kunsthaus Baselland for the tenth time. The presentation of new works by nearly 50 emerging artists continues the long-term collaboration at the Kunsthaus Baselland, located in the immediate vicinity of the Campus Dreispitz of the HGK Basel FHNW since 2024. To emphasize the special nature of a graduation exhibition in a leading art institution and in the education of artists, who are transitioning from the sensitive environment of the art academy to the challenges of working as professional artists, each year a renowned guest curator is invited to curate the exhibition together with Chus Martínez, head of the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK Basel FHNW. Our 2025 guest is independent curator Margaux Bonopera.
The title of this year’s graduation exhibition refers to Iraqi author Nazik al‑Mala’ika (1923 – 2007). Her poem Revolt Against the Sun (Thawra `ala al-shams) was published in 1947, and in 2020 an English anthology with the same title was released featuring 32 of her key poems, spanning over decades of her work. In the oeuvre of Nazik al‑Mala’ika Revolt Against the Sun means a revolt against imposed meaning, dominance, and inadvertently established conformity. There is no common subject that unites the exhibition as such, but the fact that all the works created by the participating artists—third-year bachelor and second-year master—embody a will to address the current states of our minds and bodies. All are concerned with how we can deal with the deep turbulences caused by war, climate crisis, inequality, digital alienation, identity fragmentation, and chronic anxiety. Can art offer some solace in this situation? Can we regain a sense of the self that can defy and contest the notions of the self constantly proposed by social media or the mainstream discourses on automated labor and the tasks machines are going to take away from us? Can art contribute to regaining peace?
Margaux Bonopera has been an independent curator and head of exhibitions at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles since 2018. A graduate of the École du Louvre in Paris (2014) and holder of a master's degree in curating from the Royal College of Art in London (2017), she has worked with cultural institutions such as the Galerie Sultana in Arles and Paris, Mécènes du Sud in Montpellier-Sète-Béziers, ésban École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nîmes, or Capc Musée d'art contemporain Bordeaux. She regularly writes texts for artists, institutions, and galleries. In 2024, she was curator-in-residence with Jean-Baptiste Carobolante at the Maison Populaire in Montreuil. She is currently working on a double exhibition around the work of the artist Adrien Fregosi for spring 2026.