From 21 May, the Fondation Beyeler, with headquarters in Basel, is hosting the first solo exhibition in Switzerland devoted to the work of Colombian artist Doris Salcedo (Bogotá, 1958). Entitled Doris Salcedo, the exhibition will chart the artist’s career and show various key pieces from the different phases of her work.

One of the most internationally-acclaimed Colombian artists, Doris Salcedo creates sculptures and site-specific interventions inspired by her experience and personal history. Her works are often based on everyday objects and materials, such as wooden furniture, items of clothing, cement or grass, to embody pain, trauma, violence and loss.

Between 2011 and 2012, the main hall of the CAM – Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre hosted the artist’s solo exhibition Plegaria Muda [Silent Prayer], which featured an installation with the same title commissioned by the CAM and the Moderna Museet in Malmö, where the exhibition was also shown. It also travelled to São Paulo, Mexico City, Rome and London.

The installation, composed of 162 sculptures, stems from the violence experienced in the artist’s native country, specifically the numerous murders of young people. Doris Salcedo accompanied mothers searching for their disappeared children and in their subsequent mourning, creating sculptures resembling coffins, which are also symbols of life and renewal, with plants sprouting from them and continuing to grow.

The CAM acquired five of the sculptures that formed part of the installation, which are now travelling to Basel to be displayed in the exhibition, curated by Sam Keller and Fiona Hesse, which will be open until 17 September 2023. In parallel, the Fondation Beyeler is presenting the installation Palimpsest, by the same artist, which reflects on the migration crisis.