MIKROTOPIA : Franziska Baumgartner

Franziska Baumgartner lives and works in Basel. Her artistic practice operates at the intersection of art, material experimentation, and process-based experimental arrangements. Her work revolves around transformation, self-organisation, and the intrinsic dynamics of matter.

In Mikrotopia, Franziska Baumgartner continues her artistic research at the interface of material experimentation, process aesthetics, and methodologies informed by scientific inquiry. Central to the exhibition is the investigation of matter’s inherent dynamics: transformation, self-organisation, and emergent structural processes constitute the guiding principles of the works on view. The exhibition brings together large-scale installations, video-based sequences, and photographic series derived from carefully constructed experimental settings. Baumgartner combines organic and inorganic substances, liquid and solid materials, as well as chemical and organic components. The interaction of differing viscosities and surface tensions gives rise to spontaneous, self-organising structures that are both visually compelling and theoretically resonant.

Video installations translate these processes into immersive sensory environments. Liquids projected onto membranes within basin-like structures are modulated by frequencies, generating cell-like formations that divide, reorganise, and stabilise. In parallel, photographic works emerge from experiments with ink and acrylic binder produced on slide plates, which are then enlarged and exposed through analogue processes. The resulting imagery evokes associations with microscopic organisms, unfamiliar life forms, or extraterrestrial structures.

Mikrotopia thus opens an interdisciplinary dialogue between art, natural science, and perception. The exhibition explores principles of pattern formation, growth, and fractality in matter, reflects on the relationship between organic and artificial systems, and challenges anthropocentric perspectives in the perception of materiality.

www.franziska-baumgartner.ch

We thank the Hans and Renée Müller-Meylan Foundation for their generous support.

Location: Artstübli – Kunst & Kultur
Steinentorberg 28, 4051 Basel

Opening hours:
Thursday/Friday: 11 am – 6 pm
Saturday: 2 pm – 6 pm

Opening: Thursday, 19 March 2026, 6 pm
Finissage: Saturday, 25 April 2026, 2 – 6 pm