16–22 June 2025
Mittlere Brücke, Basel, Switzerland
Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is known for her iconoclastic and performative relationship to publishing, often focusing on language and conflict. DISARM FLAGS (ISBN 978-1-913983-35- 2), a major installation for Parcours, is a playful and thought-provoking work on the Mittlere Brücke, the oldest Rhine crossing in Basel. The piece is Banner’s most recent publication. Flags line the bridge, depicting mannequin limbs as they hurtle through a blue sky, they are emblazoned with words, ALLEGATION, OBSOLETE, DISARM, ARSENAL, ORCHESTRA, DEFACE, SURFACE, UNDERHAND, FOOTNOTE, THROWBACK and DELEGATION, referring to parts of the body as well as to the body politic.
The artist describes this piece as ‘a gravity defiant concrete poem - which is actually more fluid than concrete’. Originally props from Banner’s film DISARM (portrait) 2023, the tattooed body parts are animated by the wind and perhaps destined for the water, as they summon a surreal sense of desire, conflict, and lost aspiration. Banner reimagines the bridge itself as a runway or performance space, along which citizens and visitors to Art Basel cross and re-cross in an endless parade. The artist often plays with the notion of the ‘runway’ as a site for aircraft as well as a theatrical fashion space. The images on the flags blur the boundaries between life and lifelikeness, naturalness and artificiality; in an age of digital modification on social media, the mannequin seems an obtusely analogue stand-in for the human body.
