Conical Helix of Time

4 – 21 June 2026 at Gallery House, Zürich with Amalia Laurent, Jessica Luostarinen, Cristiano Di Martino, Emma Pidré, Priscilla Tea, and on 17 June 2026 at Kirche Kleinhüningen, Basel with a performance by Troubadour21

Conical Helix of Time explores perceptions of time and human agency, especially via comparisons between our contemporary reality and the Middle Ages.

In 1999, Mark Fisher proposed we are entering a time where differentiations are flattened. His thesis examines what he called Gothic Materialism, observing a collapse between perceived opposites; living and dead, natural and technological, real and fake, physical and spiritual. Fisher argued these contemporary conflations echo anxieties expressed during the High Middle Ages, when technological and agricultural innovations allowed populations in Europe to double, only to be halved by the Great Famine and the Black Death.

Our Techno Feudal New Dark Age has similar concerns. Rapid technological development has reduced the requirement of labour and has us questioning reality. Instead of fearing the wrath of God, our communication devices double as tools for tracking, surveillance and control. Within this context the exhibition invites us to contemplate our agency, prompted by the work of contemporary artists Amalia Laurent, Jessica Luostarinen, Cristiano Di Martino, Emma Pidré, Priscilla Tea, and Troubadour21.

The exhibition took shape across two spaces, the derelict office space occupied by Gallery House ahead of demolition, and a baroque church where further works are installed at Kirche Kleinhüningen on Dorfstrasse in Basel, where Carl Jung spent his formative years, while his father was the church’s pastor.