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

Clarastrasse is not one of Basel's most attractive streets. Yet, it is part of an urban axis that connects the Messeplatz with the Claraplatz, and is continued further to the Rhein and Basel's old town on the other side of the river. Right now, Clarastrasse is in the midst of construction work, part of a large-scale project to renovate its infrastructure and to foster a more vibrant city life. 

A number of houses on Clarastrasse have deteriorated, many stores are empty - an almost ideal situation for this year's Parcours sector of Art Basel. Curated by Stefanie Hessler, a series of site-specific installations and performances will take place on Clarastrasse and in its vicinity. Many of them have been created specifically for spaces here - shops and stores, a hotel and a restaurant, a distillery and a disused shopping mall. Art Parcours 2024 is certainly going to vitalise the Clarastrasse, albeit for a short time, from 10 to 16 June. For more info, see www.artbasel.com/basel/basel/parcours-overview?lang=en

Enjoyable even when it's raining, a walk from Basel's Wasserturm, along residential streets and further through the fields, all the way to the Predigerhof, makes it clear that the local urban and agricultural areas are interwoven in a very close way. A lonely border stone amidst greenery is an only indication of the boundary between the city of Basel and the canton of Baselland.

It is here, on more than 50 acres of farmland, that this year's activities of the Basel Social Club - a non-profit organisation founded two years ago with the intention of creating social spaces for art - will take place. Artistic interventions, including large-scale sculpture by Iza Tarasewicz, will be positioned throughout the fields and in the barns; performances, open-air cinema and culinary delights will also be on offer, with host farmers actively involved in the events.  From June 9 - 16, 2024. For more details, see www.baselsocialclub.com/2024.html

Basel's Hotel Merian has a long history, involving a number of closures and new beginnings. Housed in the building designed by Amadeus Merian and first opened in 1844, it was extended in 1857, closed in 1963 after a fire, rebuilt six years later, acquired by the Christoph Merian Foundation in 1986 and sold in 2018. Now it continues to operate as a self check-in hotel ... who knows for how long.

Most recently, the hotel's neo-classical facade facing the Rhein has sprouted five white stars! They are part of an art installation by Petrit Halilaj. "When The Sun Goes Away We Paint The Sky" is the work that the artist had originally created for Manifesta 14 in Prishtina, Kosovo, referring to the downfall of that city's Grand Hotel. In Basel, the stars on Hotel Merian will shine at night during Art Basel, while a conversation with the artist will take place in the building's grand hall,  the "Meriansaal," on 13 June 2024, at 11 am. For more info, see www.artbasel.com/events/detail/82902/For-the-city-of-Basel-When-the-sun-goes-away-we-paint-the-sky/52302

Hidden behind the scaffolding and construction containers, the iconic building of Basel's "Globus" department store has been undergoing reconstruction for several years now. The front facing the Marktplatz has already served as a screen of a kind - last year we could see here Claudia Comte's "Waves, Cacti and Sunsets,"  the first installation of a series of art projects done in collaboration with Fondation Beyeler. What is in store this year?

Preparations for another large-scale artwork are going on. An intervention into the public space of the Marktplatz will take place from 8 June until 6 Oct 2024. Created by the Swiss artist Julian Charrière, "Calls for Action" is to "connect visitors across vast distances, bridging mountainous Switzerland with a Western Indian Cloud Forest in Ecuador ..."  You can read more about it here:  www.fondationbeyeler.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/Presse/Medienmitteilungen_E/en2024/EN_MM_GLOBUS_FB_Julian_Charriere.pdf

In the City Lounge rain continues to fall through the large oculus, leaving an oval mark on the pavement below. Stacks of wooden elements, protected by a roof, are ready to be assembled into sitting platforms. 

The same wooden platforms, made of Douglas fir, are being reused every year. Designed by "INCH Furniture" and set up for the first time for Art Basel in 2016, 12 free-form elements function as islands on which one can sit or lie down.  To find out more, see www.inchfurniture.ch/en/projects/public-places/-50 

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