Saša Tkačenko

We’re happy to announce our participation in the new edition of Basel Social Club with a selection of works by Saša Tkačenko. 

Basel Social Club returns June 9–16, 2024, for its third edition in a new location and new format: a week-long event in the open air on farmland fields behind the residential neighborhood of Bruderholz, extending across approximately 50 hectares of land into Baselland – from the city border to the edge of the forest.

Tkačenko’s practice is almost always in direct collaboration with the space it occupies. In the atmospheric video work Perfect ride, we, as well as the performer, experience the excitement of moving through the institutional space in a way free of restraints, and with an almost childlike giddiness. The space in the work, and in real life, is left transformed and its purpose is slightly shifted by this moving and radical act. In a similar matter, the series of flags titled Line by line, is delicately used to evoke a feeling of longing and change. They become a vessel for a meaning hidden in the viewer, which is evoked also by the flag itself, the colors, the textile, its coat of arms. The works connect to the various spaces they hang in to bring a new experience to them. For this occasion, this selection of works are thought to engage with the context of the new surrounding of Basel Social Club, and bring a new perspective on Tkačenko’s pieces.

Saša Tkačenko currently lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia. His artistic practice engages spaces and their transformation when exposed to other media, as their architectural features interact with sculpture, video and installation. Tkačenko’s works thus create dynamic situations in which the audience plays a constituent part, often reflecting on motives and stories from popular culture and contemporary human life. He has been exhibiting since 2008, including shows at institutions such as Centre Pompidou Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Vienna, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest, Times Museum Guangdong, ACP – Australian Centre for Photography Sydney, Belgrade City Museum, Künstlerhaus Bremen, UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art New York, Castello di Rivoli – Museo di Arte di Contemporanea Torino. Tkačenko participated in artist-in-residence programs at ISCP in New York and T.I.C.A-AirLAb Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art. His works were shown at art fairs such as Liste Art Fair Basel, Rewriting our imaginations organised by LISTE, Art Geneve, Flash Show Budapest, Not Cancelled (online). His works are in collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade and Telenor collection of contemporary art.