Before the fair rolls up: there is more to Basel’s cultural scene than one frenetic week in June – The Art Newspaper

Every June, a number of Baselers pack a bag, rent out their apartments for eye-watering sums and decamp to nearby villages in Alsace for the week. “Some artists I know do it every year,” says the curator Anastasia Chaguidouline, who is based in the city. “They don’t even try to participate in Art Basel anymore—they just leave.”

But for those who stay, the week is something else entirely—what Samuel Leuenberger, the founder and director of the independent art space SALTS, describes as “a kind of beautiful beast”. “You can have ten remarkable encounters in a single afternoon,” he says. “Curators, artists, collectors, architects, writers—it becomes an intense social choreography around art.”

But once the fair ends, the VIP dinners disappear and the temporary architecture around Messeplatz is dismantled, what remains? Rather a lot, as it turns out.

Basel’s cultural life during the other 51 weeks of the year is quieter, but also more representative of the city itself. Institutions such as Kunstmuseum Basel, Fondation Beyeler, Kunsthalle Basel and Schaulager do not exist to service the fair; they maintain their own international gravity throughout the year. “[Art Basel] is a big deal,” says the Basel-born photographer and guide Seraina Oppliger. “But it’s not the loudest thing we have.”

Recently, Leuenberger edited ABC Basel, a publication that documents 12 Basel-based institutions. “Working on it, I was reminded again how unusually dense and interconnected the ecosystem here really is,” he says. “Basel may appear small geographically, but culturally it functions like a much larger metropolis.”

What gives the city its particular texture is not only its museums but also the network surrounding them. In the Dreispitz district, near the Basel Academy of Art and Design campus, the recently reopened Kunsthaus Baselland has become an important meeting point for younger artists and institutional workers. Meanwhile, the independent space called For has been quietly doing some of the most rigorous curatorial work in Switzerland.

Easy to miss

Off the radar of most fair-goers is Amore, an artist-run exhibition platform on Gartenstrasse founded in 2021 by three graduates of the Basel Academy of Art and Design—the kind of initiative that appears on no official map but is precisely where younger artists find each other and show their work.

“These are the kinds of places where younger artists actually meet each other,” Chaguidouline says. “Small, serious and constantly active, but easy to miss if you’re only here for the week.”

Basel Academy itself quietly shapes much of the city’s cultural life. Students circulate between studios, temporary exhibitions, off-spaces and collaborative projects that appear and disappear without much fanfare. Sophie Yerly, an artist based in Basel, describes the city as one “shaped more by institutions, studios and independent artist-led contexts than by the kind of commercial gallery scene found in London or New York”. And during the fair, she says, it creates an unexpected inversion: “It can feel as if the international art scene comes to you, instead of you having to travel to Berlin, Paris or elsewhere.”

The fair does change things, even for those who have grown accustomed to it. Independent spaces plan their strongest programming around the week, hoping to catch the attention of visitors with an hour to spare between appointments. Art Basel’s Parcours sector—a free, outdoor circuit of public artworks through the city’s streets and along the riverfront—draws locals and tourists alike.

Events like OMG, Franck!, at the Franck Areal venue, offer an alternative social scene—digital art, fashion, sound and food—that feels made by and for Basel rather than imported for the occasion. “For many people Art Basel can feel a bit stuffy,” Oppliger says. “But when you have these outdoor things and side events, you can just be there and have a good evening without spending a lot on admissions.”

Returning to the Rhine

Even outside Art Basel week, much of Basel’s creative life unfolds publicly and informally. In summer, gallery openings spill outdoors, temporary food projects appear along the Rhine and small artistic collaborations emerge across the city. “A lot of small things in a small town,” Oppliger says. “And that is very creative.”

Again and again, conversations about Basel eventually return to the Rhine itself—not as a postcard image but as part of the city’s everyday rhythm. Locals gather along the riverbanks, and wine tastings emerge with little advertisement. “If you want to see the locals,” Chaguidouline says, “go to the Rhine. That’s where they’ll be.”

The relationship between Art Basel and the city around it has evolved into something more complicated than either enthusiasm or resentment. Independent spaces programme specifically for the fair week but also recognise how easily visibility can dissolve amid the sheer density of events. “There can be an illusion that Art Basel automatically creates visibility,” Yerly says. “I am not sure it is that simple.”

Leuenberger sees the relationship as less oppositional than symbiotic. “What makes Basel special,” he says, “is that world-class institutions co-exist very naturally with smaller project spaces, artist-run initiatives and experimental formats.” And while Art Basel amplifies that ecosystem each June, it did not create it.