Marc Bauer:

Fear Rage Desire, Still Standing

Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland

The Kunstmuseum Basel presents a project by the internationally renowned Swiss artist Marc Bauer (b. 1975). Bauer’s drawings grapple with history, memory, gender, and identity from a queer perspective. Titled Marc Bauer. Fear Rage Desire, Still Standing, the presentation intertwines motifs from art history, from artists such as Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450-1516) and Nasta Rojc (1883-1964), with photographs from the internet and archival material. Bauer’s work focuses on the construction of masculinity and the violence it unleashes in society and—that is the central theme in this project—against queer people in particular. Tracing a long arc from history to the present, he reveals how deeply entrenched such violence is in social structures.

 

Bauer’s works are based on extensive research: he reads academic literature, delves into archives, and talks to scholars and experts. One of his interlocutors has been Jonathan D. Katz, who organized, researched, and curated the exhibition The First Homosexuals. He then selects images and writings from a variety of sources, which he translates into a very personal and exceptionally fascinating visual universe that is laced with ambiguity and provokes searching reflections.

 

Created right on the museum’s walls, Bauer’s mural drawings are destroyed after the end of an exhibition. Visitors are invited to watch him at work on site starting March 4, 2026. The artist will return on two occasions to rework the wall drawings (May 12–17 and November 3–7, 2026). The presentation combines the murals with drawings on canvas and paper and a soundtrack composed by the Berlin-based artists Sin Maldita (Tim Roth) and Philipp Hülsenbeck for a multimedia installation.

 

Bauer was invited to create this work on occasion of the exhibition The First Homosexuals. The Birth of New Identities 1869–1939, which is on view at the Neubau from March 7 until August 2, 2026.