art basel 2024: designboom's guide to the swiss art event

What to check out during art basel 2024

Art Basel 2024 – which takes place at Messe Basel from June 13th to 16th, 2024 – is set to bring over 285 international galleries and artists to present artworks and exhibitions spanning from painting and sculpture to photography and digital works, from early-twentieth-century Modern pioneers to emerging contemporary practitioners. Maike Cruse, Director of Art Basel in Basel, says that there will be 22 galleries joining Art Basel 2024 for the first time, with five of them directly participating in the main sector of the show. Our designboom guide to Art Basel 2024 lists the exhibitions and events not to miss during its course.

For the first time, Stefanie Hessler Director of Swiss Institute (SI) in New York, reconceptualizes the Parcours section, which will unfold along Clarastrasse up to the Middle Bridge. The city’s Messeplatz, curated for the third time by Samuel Leuenberger, will feature a site-specific presentation by conceptual artist Agnes Denes. Unlimited, home to large-scale projects, will be curated for the fourth time by Giovanni Carmine, Director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, and host Unlimited Night, which allows visitors to stay beyond opening hours for more performances.

Art Basel’s talks program, Conversations, is celebrating its 20th anniversary edition during Art Basel 2024, curated for the first time by Berlin-based art critic Kimberly Bradley. Outside the Art Basel 2024 fair, visitors to the city of Basel can roam around and swing by a program of events and special projects throughout the fair week, with the city’s museums and foundations hosting a range of exhibitions coinciding with the Art Basel fair. Read through our guide to Art Basel 2024 below to not miss out on the programs, events, exhibitions and more taking place between June 13th and 16th, 2024.

image courtesy of Art Basel

UNLIMITED

For the fourth time, Giovanni Carmine, Director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, is curating Art Basel’s sector for large-scale projects, Unlimited. 70 Monumental installations, colossal sculptures, wall paintings, comprehensive photo series, and expansive video projections are set to be exhibited during Art Basel 2024. They guide visitors through a six-meter-high sculpture composed of deformed guardrails by Bettina Pousttchi, presented by Buchmann Galerie, and a site-specific installation by Swedish artist Anna Uddenberg, titled Premium Economy (2023-2024), presented by Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler and Meredith Rosen Gallery.

Unlimited will also welcome works by Yayoi Kusama and Ugo Rondinone’s luminous light (2023) alongside Untitled (2022), an installation by American artist Henry Taylor, presented by Hauser & Wirth; Senza titolo (vele) (1993) by Greek Italian artist Jannis Kounellis’ installation, presented by Kewenig; Untitled (FDR NY) #5-22 (1984) by American artist Keith Haring, presented by Gladstone Gallery and Martos Gallery; a new video installation titled DOKU The Flow (2024) by Chinese artist Lu Yang, presented by Société; and a reenactment of American artist Faith Ringgold’s first multimedia performance, titled The Wake and Resurrection of the Bicentennial Negro (1976), presented by Goodman Gallery in collaboration with ACA Galleries.

Other works are displayed, such as Chess (2012), a seminal installation by American artist Lutz Bacher, presented by Galerie Buchholz; ARCHITEKTURTRAUM (2001) by Swiss artist Miriam Cahn, presented by Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff; and a complete set of Robert Frank’s The Americans (1954-1957) presented by Pace Gallery and Thomas Zander, to name a few. Art Basel’s Unlimited Night returns on June 13th too, and for the first time, visitors to Unlimited can vote for their favorite artwork for the whole duration of Art Basel. The Unlimited People’s Pick will then be announced towards the end of the show week.

Ugo Rondinone, Luminous Light, 2023 to appear in Unlimited at Art Basel 2024, Painted Bronze, 232 Cm × 651 Cm × 204 Cm | image courtesy of Ugo Rondinone

PARCOURS

Stefanie Hessler, Director of Swiss Institute (SI) in New York, is curating Parcours for the first time, the Art Basel’s public art sector, which will unfold along Clarastrasse up to the Middle Bridge, connecting the fairgrounds with the Rhine. Parcours is expected to guide the visitors around empty stores and operational shops, a hotel, a restaurant, a brewery, and other everyday spaces on Basel’s Clarastrasse. The projects showcased, many of them site-specific and newly produced, aim to explore the transformation and circulation in trade, globalization, and ecology. Stefanie Hessler succeeds Samuel Leuenberger in curating Parcours, who expanded the sector over the past eight years.

In Parcours, London-based artist Alvaro Barrington builds the Tropical Zone store, an architectural structure lined with paintings that houses produce on sale, presented by Sadie Coles HQ, Thaddaeus Ropac, and Massimodecarlo. Swedish artist Lap-See Lam introduces her installation of traditional Chinese shadow play and digital animation, presented by Galerie Nordenhake. A portable garden is what Austrian artist Lois Weinberger is exhibiting, presented by Galerie Krinzinger, with the hopes of transposing nature into an urban context to attract insects and birds.

London-based artist Mandy El-Sayegh is holding a performance that questions the spread of information and goods within a partially vacant shopping mall, presented by Thaddaeus Ropac and Lehmann Maupin, while a series of pirate flags by Rirkrit Tiravanija lines the Middle Bridge crossing the Rhine, presented by neugerriemschneider. Peruvian artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca, presented by Galerie Gisela Capitain, installs her ‘Conversion systems’ inside a brewery, a juxtaposition of ancestral techniques and artisanal materials with industrial applications in petrol extraction. The Parcours Night will be hosted on June 12th, from 8 to 11pm, for a night of live performances and other acts along Clarastrasse and at the Merian, situated right at the Middle Bridge along the Rhine in Kleinbasel.

Alvaro Barrington Installation view, Parcours, Art Basel, Basel, 13 – 16 June 2024 © Alvaro Barrington. Courtesy the Artist; Sadie Coles HQ, London; Thaddaeus Ropac gallery; and MASSIMODECARLO. Photo: Andrea Rossetti

THE MESSEPLATZ

In the city’s Messeplatz, conceptual artist Agnes Denes guides the viewers into her site-specific presentation under the curation of Samuel Leuenberger, founder of the non-profit exhibition spaces SALTS in Birsfelden and Bennwil. It is Samuel Leuenberger’s third time curating the Messeplatz, and Agnes Denes’ presence ushers in the piece Honouring Wheatfield – A Confrontation (2024), referring to her land artwork from the 1980s, which will remain on the Messeplatz throughout the summer until its harvest. Agnes Denes is considered a pioneer of environmental, ecological, and land art whose artistic practice harks to the engagement with socio-political ideas.

Agnes Denes, Wheatfield—A Confrontation, New York, 1982 | image courtesy of Agnes Denes, via Instagram

CONVERSATIONS

Celebrating its 20th anniversary edition, Art Basel’s flagship talks program, Conversations, returns, curated for the first time by Berlin-based art critic Kimberly Bradley. More than 25 thought leaders are expected to join Conversations, with 11 focused panels related to the issue of building and shaping contemporary culture’s future. The discussions will touch on the art trade’s challenges and opportunities in a super election year, the potentials of increased interdisciplinarity in museums, how artists relate to politics in a time of global crisis, and the ways digital technologies are recasting art’s social and economic ecosystems.

Hans Ulrich Obrist will guide viewers into worldbuilding and the idea of utopia with digital artists Rebecca Allen and Danielle Braithwaite Shirley, and architect Carlo Ratti, who is curating the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale (read more about it here). Before her Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, artist Mire Lee will dive into her art practice, which connects to the art and history of moving sculptures. Then, Ben Davis from Artnet News will sit down with artist Cecile B. Evans to converse about how technology is changing art communities and its value.

Legal experts Katalin Andreides and Till Vere-Hodge, along with UBS’s Paul Donovan will discuss how political and legal changes in an election year could affect the art market in a session led by Georgina Adam. The talks will wrap up with a discussion between Basel-based artist Sophie Jung, British artist Monster Chetwynd, and curator/critic Francesco Bonami about the role of humor and satire in modern art. During the final weekend, a selection of videos from the most notable discussions over the past two decades will be shown in the Conversations auditorium, and visitors are invited to attend.

Kimberly Bradley, Conversations Curator | image courtesy of Art Basel

MAISON RUINART

On the occasion of Art Basel, Maison Ruinart presents its Carte Blanche 2024 program, a collective of artists united by a strong connection to nature. Part of Conversations With Nature will be exhibited at the Collectors Lounge at Art Basel in Basel from June 13 to 16, featuring works by Thjis Biersteker and Marcus Coates. This year, the main theme is sustainability, with panels composed of influential personalities and committed artists. One of the objectives is to understand how art can contribute to promoting a more environmentally conscious and respectful society.

A dedicated space, the Collectors Lounge, showcases two major works, offering an exclusive meeting place. Here, the spotlight is on the works of Marcus Coates and Thijs Biersteker, two artists part of Maison Ruinart’s Carte Blanche 2024 program, both recognized for their commitment and reflection on contemporary issues.

The participating artists, representing five continents, include Andrea Bowers from Los Angeles, Marcus Coates and Thijs Biersteker from Europe, Pascale Marthine Tayou from Belgium and Cameroon, Henrique Oliveira from London and São Paulo, and Tomoko Sauvage who works between Paris and Tokyo. Their works will spark global conversations from New York to Tokyo, highlighting diverse perspectives on environmental issues.

Conversations with nature, Ruinart vineyard in Sillery, Champagne, France, 2023 | image courtesy Blast Production/Ruinart

we are ona at Art Basel 2024

Creative culinary studio WE ARE ONA and Art Basel 2024 have also joined forces for a series of culinary pop-up pairing fine dining, art and design. The first chapter begins with designer Pierre Marie and chef Sayaka Sawaguchi from June 9th to 16th in Filter4, a former municipal water tank in Basel. Their collaboration will also be presented during Art Basel’s global shows in Basel, Paris, Miami Beach and Hong Kong.

WE ARE ONA pop-up pairing fine dining, art and design | image courtesy of WE ARE ONA

BMW teams up with Es Devlin

During Art Basel 2024, BMW will bring over its iX5 Hydrogen car, launched in February 2023, all dressed up in a new skin through its collaboration with British artist and set designer Es Devlin. The show and installation car is presented alongside a dance-theater piece born from a creative union with the renowned dancer, Sharon Eyal. More information about the project is coming soon.

LISTE ART FAIR BASEL 2024

Liste Art Fair Basel, which runs from June 10th to 26th, is returning too with all of its guides and formats: Liste Art Fair Basel, Liste Showtime Online and Liste Expedition Online. This year, 91 galleries from 35 countries will welcome visitors in Hall 1.1 at Messe Basel alongside 65 solo, 16 group presentations, and five joint booths. Elise Lammer is curating an extensive performance programme titled Mythic Beings, in homage to Adrian Piper’s 1973 work. A series of performances is expected to take place from Wren Cellier, Astrit Ismaili, Florence Peake, and Luana Vitra, from soundscapes and seminars to drawings and paintings.

Liste Showtime Online, which runs from June 10th to 23rd, is the digital edition of the physical Liste Art Fair Basel, tailored to the emerging contemporary artists presented by international galleries. In this space, visitors can go through over 80 new and upcoming artists represented by participating galleries from more than 35 countries. Along with this is the Liste Expedition Online, a research forum with a growing index of artists who represent new positions in contemporary art. The artists are selected by galleries and project spaces participating in Liste Art Fair Basel and Liste Showtime Online.

In a statement, the Liste Art Fair Basel’s team says that it underwent structural and personnel changes in the management following the news of its co-directorship. In October 2023, Reto Nussbaum took over as the commercial director, and the artistic direction for the 2024 fair is set to be overseen on an interim basis by Peter Bläuer, the co-founder and former long-time director of Liste.

Florence Peake, FATCUAL ACTUAL Ensemble, installation view at Southwark Park Galleries, London, 2023 | image courtesy of Liste Art Fair Basel

GUIDE TO ART IN BASEL OUTSIDE THE FAIR

ArtMeta’s The Digital Art Mile on Rebgasse

A new digital art fair is coming to Basel with the launch of ArtMeta’s The Digital Art Mile, a boutique fair that aims to make digital art accessible. From June 10th to 16th, ArtMeta’s The Digital Art Mile runs through various exhibition venues along Rebgasse, in close proximity to Art Basel, where renowned international galleries and NFT platforms will showcase contemporary and historical digital art. ArtMeta and The Tezos Foundation are presenting two leading platforms across its ecosystem.

The Swiss platform Objkt will host the exhibition ‘Matter and Data’, and with Analivia Cordeiro, it will introduce an interactive installation that can allow visitors to transform their movement patterns into generative NFTs on the Tezos blockchain. Then, generative art platform fx(hash) will exhibit a curation of code-based artworks showcasing cultural and technological ties between digital and physical formats in cooperation with OFFICE IMPART. Visitors may see these live in Space 25 at Rebgasse 25, Basel; Space 31 at Rebgasse 23, 4th floor Basel; and Kult.Kino Camera at Rebgasse 1, Basel.

BRONX BODEGA Basel at the novartis campus

BRONX BODEGA Basel is hosting a pop-up event from June 10th to June 16th, 2024, in collaboration with Ghetto Gastro (USA). Announced by Villa Nomad and located at the Novartis Campus in Basel, The BRONX BODEGA Basel guides attendees to dine, relax, connect, and party everyday from 11:30 AM to 2:00 AM. Highlights feature curated experiences with contemporary art, large-scale textile installations and design elements by multidisciplinary artist Gab Bois, exclusive culinary creations by Ghetto Gastro (USA) alongside Swiss chefs Elif Oskan and Markus Stöckle, and nightly after-parties that continue the celebration. The event also includes art projections and NFT artworks by artists Sasha Stiles and Johannes Gees displayed on the Herzog & de Meuron building facade.

Exhibitions inside Kunstmuseum Basel

At Kunstmuseum Basel, visitors to Art Basel 2024 can roam around the glowing installation of Dan Flavin: Dedications in Lights and When We See Us, a century of Black Figuration in painting by artists from the African continent and its diaspora, a look into the experiences of the quotidian in their painting over the last 100 years. Visitors can also pop by the other exhibitions inside, namely Made in Japan: Color Woodblock Prints by Hiroshige, Kunisada and Hokusai and Ingenious Women: Women Artists and their Companions.

Dan Flavin, untitled (in memory of Urs Graf), 1975, Kunstmuseum Basel, Gift by Dia Art Foundation, New York © Stephen Flavin / 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich | read more here

Vitra Schaudepot and VITRA design museum

Vitra doubles down with back-to-back exhibitions. Argentine visual artist and designer Andrés Reisinger directs Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse at the Vitra Schaudepot, with over 100 objects inspired by science fiction from the museum’s collection are staged in a futuristic display. Inside the VITRA design museum, the exhibition ‘Transform! Designing the Future of Energy’ guides viewers into the ever-evolving landscape of green energy, from sleek solar houses to wind power stations that dance with the breeze.