Intersections: The Art Basel Podcast

Video- and performance-art pioneer Joan Jonas and jazz pianist Jason Moran have collaborated for almost 20 years, and it all began with a call. “I phoned him, which was very unusual for me to do. I was very shy,” Jonas remembers. From there, the pair had six weeks to develop The Shape, The Scent, The Feel of Things (2005), a now-iconic performance based on the writings of Aby Warburg. In this episode, Jonas and Moran reminisce on that very first collaboration, what they’ve learned from each other since, and the importance of performance—not just for an art audience in a white cube but for civilization at large.

Jonathan Anderson has one of the most visionary minds in fashion today. Founder of an eponymous label and Creative Director of LOEWE, the Northern Ireland-raised designer came to the industry via theater: ‘I’ve always been fascinated by character building,’ he says in this episode. ‘If I hadn’t gone to drama school, I don’t think I would be able to produce the collections I do today.’ Beyond his beginnings, Anderson speaks to Marc Spiegler about his love of ceramics, the timelessness of a Renaissance masterpiece, and the importance of artistic production today. ‘To me,’ he says, ‘the artist is the most exciting person in the social ecosystem, because they should be allowed the freedom to tackle the things we can’t.’

LOEWE currently has applications open for the 2023 edition of the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize. The winner will be announced in spring 2023, followed by an exhibition of the work in summer. The LOEWE Women’s SS23 show will take place in Paris on September 30, 2022.

Hot on the heels of the publication of her book The Story of Art Without Men, author, podcaster, and curator Katy Hessel joins Marc Spiegler to discuss all things women and art. Her focus on the gender gap in art began in 2015, when she visited a fair with no women artists represented. From there, she launched an Instagram account (@thegreatwomenartists), a podcast, and now a book. Here, she broaches everything from forgotten Renaissance masters like Sofonisba Anguissola to the controversy surrounding the creation of the readymade: Did Marcel Duchamp make the Urinal or was it, in fact, made by his contemporary Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven? “What I’m trying to do,” she says, “is turn upside-down what we’ve known as art history.”

Fresh from the mud-spattered, Santiago Sierra designed catwalk of the Balenciaga Spring 2023 collection, Artistic Director Demna talks to Marc Spiegler about cutting his teeth at Martin Margiela and Louis Vuitton to the lasting effects of having been a refugee of the Former Soviet Union. He also warns of a brand becoming more powerful than a product - ’popularity is always very dangerous’ - and reflects on his relationship to artists and his need for silence. Ultimately, he says, ‘I no longer think about making the fashion industry understand what I do,’ he says, ‘I just do it.’

Businesswoman and art collector Pamela Joyner tells Marc Spiegler that she is surprised at the analogies she sees between art collecting and her career in finance. ‘Both environments are very relationship oriented, they're reliant on individuals having confidence in each other's integrity,’ she explains. Described as an ‘activist collector’ by ArtReview magazine for promoting and collecting the work of contemporary African-American artists, as well as artists of African descent in Brazil and the UK, Joyner reflects on the collector as patron and the work she believes in. Our correspondent Stephanie Bailey interviews artist and filmmaker Wu Tsang on her new commission, Anthem (2021). The piece conceived in collaboration with the legendary singer, composer, and transgender activist Beverly Glenn-Copeland and is currently filling the Guggenheim museum’s rotunda.