21 May – 17 September 2023
Basel, Switzerland
Fondation Beyeler will host a long-term presentation of Doris Salcedo’s expansive installation Palimpsest (2013–17), which the artist dedicates to fugitives and migrants who have drowned in the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea or Atlantic Ocean.
A floor of rectangular stone slabs covers the entire gallery space, on which the names of victims temporarily and intermittently appear. Palimpsest attempts to expose the inability to collectively mourn, highlighting the way memory functions in a society that is trained to forget, with each new tragedy erasing the previous one.