The monumental work 'Duat' (1994) by Antoni Tàpies can be seen at booth U44 in the Unlimited section of Art Basel. The project is a collaboration between Bergamin & Gomide and Mayoral, gallery based in Barcelona and Paris.
Tàpies’ work was directly inspired by ghettoised or street-art forms - systems of expression that evolved outside the tasteful confines of the gallery or museum. His first works of 1945 already had something of the graffiti of the streets. His monumental Duat (1994) refers not only to walls, but also windows and doors with its appropriated wooden shutters. The marks and scripts of the street are deconstructed and liberated to float free of the wall. Part of a trend in Europe typical of the sixties, Tàpies developed an increasing interest in non-Western cultures. Not by chance, therefore, the word that jumps out in the work and gives it its title refers to an element of Egyptian mythology: Duat, also known as Tuat, Tuaut, Akert, Amenthes or Neter-khertet, is the underworld, the realm of the god Osiris (the god of the dead, of crops and full growth) and the residence of other gods and supernatural beings.
Since 2000, Unlimited presents large-scale projects that transcend the traditional art fair booth. The 2021 edition is curated by Giovanni Carmine and takes place from September 20 to 26.
