For its second participation in Liste Art Fair, Basel, NıCOLETTı presents a solo presentation by New York-based, Slovenian artist Nana Wolke (1994, Ljubljana, Sl). Exploring issues related to perception and modes of apprehension of space and time, Wolke’s series of works usually begins on film-like sets, where the artist records the unfolding of staged situations and improvised actions occurring in spaces spanning social hierarchy – from hotel rooms and private apartments to architectural complexes and public spaces, among others. Wolke proceeds to assemble and edit both original and found footage to create distinctly monochromatic visual atmospheres and rhythms that she then translates into paintings and sound installations.

Using commonplace lighting to model space and generate the grain, textures and slippages of her images and sequences, Wolke utilizes a variety of devices chosen as much for their technical properties than for their social significance – e.g. CCTV equipment, home video camcorders, inventory cameras, intercom systems, etc. Considering the multiple viewpoints from which an action can be witnessed, Wolke’s work conjures a tension between observation and control, often inviting viewers to navigate environments that interrogate notions of access and inclusion, whether for economic, social, or security purposes.

Comprising a sound installation and a new series of paintings, Wolke’s presentation at Liste derives from observing the entrance and interior of a building in Downtown New York, where the artist collected images and footage captured by intercom cameras. No longer a marker of privilege and social elite, the standardization of private security equipment reflects not only a desire for safety and comfort but also a wider desire to curate reality, seen as much in the post-pandemic resurgence of exclusive spaces and member’s clubs, as in the sprawling network of subtly integrated cameras mediating (and surveilling) our existence.

Wolke explores these ideas through an aluminium fence comprising intercom speakers leaking sound recorded inside the building’s apartments. Evoking a threshold between private and public spheres, the visible and the hidden, the installation is accompanied by paintings based on photographs showing a group of eclectic youth gathered in front of the building entrance. Titled after the timeframe marking the duration of a scene – e.g. 00:22:37,925 – – > 00:30:55,375 (Tempo) –, these paintings zoom in on fleeting moments while concealing the unfolding of explicit narratives. Whereas their monochromatic palettes invoke the saturated lighting of film sets, their granular surfaces, resulting from a combination of oil paint and construction sand, emulate the aspect of snapshots taken through the low-quality intercom camera system, generating a tension between the materiality of oil paint and the artificiality of digital images.

Examining contemporary definitions of exclusivity and inclusion, Wolke’s presentation invites us to navigate a space we may not have access to, building tensions between performance and voyeurism while musing on ideas of value, spectatorship and social hierarchy.