Supper Club at Wilde, Basel

Mathieu Dafflon, Voyage au bout de la nuit, 2019, 

Supper Club developed from creating safe spaces for open dialogue and canceling cancel culture to give people the chance to grow. It’s about believing people have good intentions, and may not have the same level of “woke-ness,” but “woke-ness” isn’t a competition. Instead, it is about devoting one’s entire being to the search for knowledge and truth and protecting freedoms of the oppressed.

Several works in the exhibition imbue the audience with positive energy, to combat the endless influx of negative information. Marina Abramović’s carved and polished pillow-shaped headrests are made of snowflake obsidian, a crystal known to prevent nightmares and balance energies. Visitors are invited to rest their heads momentarily and assume meditative states to absorb the crystal’s vibrations and healing powers. The coyote in Cassidy Toner’s Wile E. Coyote will try anything to ‘heal’ himself at this point (2019) is partially based on Mark Twain’s description of the animal in his book Roughing It: “The coyote is a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry.” According to Toner, Wile E. Coyote is much like her; he has an insatiable appetite and is never satisfied. Perhaps traits which, for better or worst, we all share.