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At first sight, they look like packages tied with orange ribbons :)  As a matter of fact, these are wooden benches, taken apart and stacked for easier transportation - they will be stored someplace else until next Art Basel comes around, in one year.  Designed by INCH Furniture, these curved benches always bring new life to the otherwise empty Messeplatz.  During Art Basel, oval wooden platforms, with greenery in their middle, provide delightful islands of repose. If only they could stay here all year round and become a permanent part of Basel's City Lounge!
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Clock is ticking ... it's time for Art Basel to come to its end, at least for this year, in Basel. An inside(r) view: the iconic Hall 2 clock, part of the design for the so-called Rundhofhalle, by Hans Hofmann, 1954.
Taking place at the same time as Art Basel, the exhibition organised by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture offers insight into current art and architecture scene in Switzerland. It accompanies the Swiss Art Competition - the world’s oldest art award, dating back to 1899.  The exhibition in the Hall 1.1 also features the laureates of this year's Prix Meret Oppenheim: Jacqueline Burckhardt, Marianne Burkhalter & Christian Sumi, and Valérie Favre. In the midst of the exhibition hall a temporary hostel has been set up. This project by the Lausanne-based group detritus had won last year's architecture prize. Using basic panels and hardware, it now offers an affordable overnight place for artists participating in the Swiss Awards event.  GUM GUM 7 retractable hostel rooms, by detritus www.d.etrit.us/bureau
For more on the Swiss Art Awards, see https://swissartawards.ch/swiss-art-awards/ Friday morning, ART BASEL begins next week, everyone is busy delivering and setting up for the big event ...  During the year, the round City Lounge, part of Herzog & de Meuron's 2013 project for Messe Basel's New Hall, is usually rather quiet. These days, large trucks clog the area, workers are busy setting up the scene for the big event that starts next week. If you are in Basel and would like to organise a bespoke architecture tour of the city, feel free to contact [email protected]
Art Basel Welcome Lounge is located in Hall 5. Not yet open, but already stocked with pink "Slow Chairs" by brothers Bouroullec, and other pieces of furniture, ready to be rearranged as needed. Reflected in the glass facade is the iconic clock of the "Rundhofhalle" (Hall 2) by Hans Hofmann (1954) and the lower floors of the Messe Tower (Morger & Degelo, 2003), the windows of which, in turn, reflect the interwoven aluminium panels of Herzog & de Meuron's New Hall (2013) and its City Lounge.  For more info about Art Basel and its offerings, see www.artbasel.com/basel/at-the-show
It's been raining in Basel for quite a while, and though many are unhappy about it, an outdoor artwork now being set up on the Messeplatz, can only benefit from all the water it gets. An extensive field of wheat is being planted on wooden pallets, atop a large asphalt square that teems with people during Art Basel, but is mostly empty during the rest of the year.  Wheat stalks have started to take over one of Basel's largest squares, growing into what promises to be one spectacular artwork ! Honouring Wheatfield – A Confrontation (2024) is going to be a Swiss adaptation of Agnes Denes's famous environmental work staged forty-two years ago in Manhattan.
For more info on the project and an interview with the artist Agnes Denes, see www.artbasel.com/stories/ecology-pioneer-american-artist-agnes-denes-basel-messeplatz-wheat-field-climate-change-awareness |
About:Art Basel 2024 takes place at the Messe / 13 - 16 June / Preview Days 11 - 12 June. At the same time it presents an expanded, city-wide program. Here, we chronicle changes taking place at some of the venues.
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