Roméo Mivekannin’s Atlas, an installation of suspended metal sculptures, is on view during Art Basel 2025 as part of the Unlimited sector. Presented by Galerie Barbara Thumm in collaboration with Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, this exhibition of eight steel sculptures explores powerful themes of history, architecture, and cultural memory. Mivekannin’s choice of material, hand-welded steel, forms intricate, cage-like structures that provoke thought and invite reflection on the legacies of colonialism and cultural representation.

images © Galerie Barbara Thumm

Roméo Mivekannin Reverses Colonial Narratives

At first glance, the sculptures of Roméo Mivekannin’s Atlas evoke birdcages, a powerful symbol of entrapment, restriction, and loss of freedom at Art Basel 2025. These small-scale architectural forms are subtle replicas of buildings associated with the histories of colonization and ethnographic exhibitions, such as the Grand Palais in Paris and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Brussels.

The sculptures represent museums that once housed ethnographic collections, and their design alludes to the structures where human zoos were historically staged. The artist‘s cages, raw and unadorned, stand in stark contrast to the opulence and grandeur these buildings project today, offering a visual counterpoint to the power dynamics they once represented.

Roméo Mivekannin’s Atlas is an exhibition of suspended metal sculptures on view at Art Basel 2025

‘atlas’ celebrates Craft and Global Connections

Roméo Mivekannin’s work is a deliberate deconstruction of the historical narratives often perpetuated by these monumental structures. By exposing the forged iron skeletons of iconic buildings, Atlas challenges the symbols of power and luxury that have transformed these sites into tourist destinations. The use of steel — a material rich in symbolism and often associated with industrial domination — heightens the work’s commentary on the exploitation embedded in architectural history. It is in the rawness of these forms that Mivekannin invites the viewer to reconsider the complex relationship between architecture, power, and cultural identity.

The hand-welding of these cages in Côte d’Ivoire further deepens the installation’s resonance. Mivekannin’s emphasis on local craftsmanship counters the often-overlooked artistry of indigenous traditions in a globalized world. By grounding the sculptures in the hands of African artisans, he only honors these practices and subverts dominant global narratives that have marginalized such craftsmanship. 

the installation consists of eight steel sculptures resembling birdcages, symbolizing museums with ethnographic collections

the cages evoke the historical contexts of colonization and ‘human zoos’

Mivekannin’s use of raw, unadorned steel contrasts with the opulence of iconic colonial-era buildings

the sculptures expose the forged iron skeletons of structures like the Grand Palais and the Crystal Palace

Atlas challenges the symbolic luxury and power associated with these historic landmarks

the cages are hand-welded in Côte d’Ivoire, emphasizing the importance of local African craftsmanship

project info:

name: Atlas

artist: Roméo Mivekannin | @romeomivekannin

gallery: Galerie Barbara Thumm | @galerie_barbara_thumm

event: Basel Art Week 2025

on view: June 16th — 22nd, 2025

photography: © Galerie Barbara Thumm

The post roméo mivekannin reinterprets colonial architecture with hand-welded sculptures at art basel appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Steve McQueen presents Bass (2024) at Schaulager in Basel, an immersive color and sound installation with over a thousand LED light tubes. One of the acclaimed British artist and Oscar-winning filmmaker’s most abstract works to date, the exhibition stages the light and sound that distinguishes Steve McQueen’s artistic practice. The installation was co-commissioned by the Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, and Dia Art Foundation in New York and remains at Schaulager Basel between June 15th and November 16th, 2025. Inside the museum, light and sound congregate as deep bass frequencies resound through the space, transitioning to and from loud and soft reverbs as individual notes or melodies. The interior is bathed in Steve McQueen’s Bass, a series of colored light tubes that change slowly, from deep red to ultraviolet, covering the entire spectrum visible to the human eye. 

In the vast interior of Schaulager Basel, over a thousand LED light tubes are temporarily installed in the architecture’s ceiling, spanning across the building’s five levels, including the soaring atrium. A column of subwoofers and speakers is suspended in the air in the middle of the installation, and from here, the bass frequencies travel through, shifting slowly alongside the deep hues of colored light tubes. ‘What I love about light and sound is that they are both created through movement and fluidity. They can be molded into any shape, like vapor or a scent; they can sneak into every nook and cranny. I also love the beginning point where something isn’t a form as much as it is all-encompassing,’ says the British artist and filmmaker.

Steve McQueen, Bass, 2024, LED Light and Sound, courtesy the artist, co-commissioned work by Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, and Dia Art Foundation, Schaulager® Münchenstein/Basel (Installation view) | all images courtesy of Schaulager Basel, photos by Pati Grabowicz, © Steve McQueen

Basslines inspired by the cycle of colored light

In 2022, the Laurenz Foundation and the Dia Art Foundation invited Steve McQueen to design a project that would first be shown in New York and then at Schaulager Basel. When the artist walked into the cavern-like, lower-level space at Dia Beacon, he decided he would work with light and sound instead of a film, resonating with the cellar-like space devoid of daylight. He felt that it was destined to accommodate an immersive work where the installation would interact with the architecture. ‘There is a commonality in the bass, the vibration, the reverb, and the tone. It seems like a calling, an interplay, a form of communication between scattered people. For me it was a way of bringing a diaspora back together,’ says Steve McQueen. From here, Bass took shape.

The starting point is the basslines. The artist worked with the renowned bassist Marcus Miller, who in turn involved four other musicians, to create the composition of Bass. The intergenerational group from the Black diaspora met at Dia Beacon in January 2024 and started improvising, inspired by the cycle of colored light that was already installed. The recording of the musicians’ session became the score of Bass, heard through speakers placed throughout the exhibition space at Schaulager Basel. In this score, the clarity of Marcus Miller’s jazz bass intertwines with the plucking and bowing sounds created by Laura-Simone Martin and her acoustic upright bass. Mamadou Kouyaté’s bright, driving rhythms on the traditional bass ngoni are joined by the deep droning sounds of Aston Barrett Jr.’s barely plucked electric bass, while the same instrument in Meshell Ndegeocello’s hands produces sonical textures.

Steve McQueen presents Bass at Schaulager in Basel, a light, color, and sound installation

expansive oceanic frequencies lasting around three hours

Music and sound have been a consistent theme throughout Steve McQueen’s works. Many of his award-winning films feature soundtracks that transform the visual experience into something multi-sensory and physical. This effect filters through the artist’s masterful use of light and color, too. At Schaulager Basel, Bass presents an immediate, dynamic interplay between light, color, and sounds, slowly deconstructing our perceptions of time and space. The feeling resembles being submerged in a sonic ocean, where visitors are enveloped by bass frequencies, deep currents, and intense hues. These expansive oceanic frequencies, lasting around three hours, are woven together with the entire color spectrum, presented in a roughly thirty-minute cycle.

‘Bass could travel anywhere because it’s about light and sound. It could be an amalgamate, it can morph in any space because it’s about light and sound anywhere,’ says Steve McQueen. The colored light appears mythical and transient, despite the slow progression of the transition. Even so, the effect is immediate and physical, drawing sensations of warmth and cold, expansion and contraction. This fluidity continues; Steve McQueen’s sound, light, and color installation at Schaulager Basel has no clear beginning or end, no specific viewpoint or focal point. Instead, visitors find their own sense of orientation and place within the experience. Steve McQueen’s installation Bass is present at Schaulager Basel in time for Art Basel Week 2025, between June 15th and November 16th.

the installation was co-commissioned by the Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, and Dia Art Foundation

inside the museum, light and sound congregate as deep bass frequencies resound through the space

a column of subwoofers and speakers is suspended in the air in the middle of the installation

the bass frequencies travel through, shifting slowly alongside the deep hues of colored light tubes

in the vast interior of Schaulager Basel, over a thousand light tubes are temporarily installed

the light tubes span across the building’s five levels, including the soaring atrium

Bass presents an immediate, dynamic interplay between light, color, and sounds

the expansive oceanic frequencies, lasting around three hours, are woven together with the entire color spectrum

the installation remains on site until November 16th, 2025

project info:

installation: Bass, 2024

artist: Steve McQueen | @stevemcqueen

commission: Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, Dia Art Foundation | @schaulagerbasel, @diaartfoundation

location: Ruchfeldstrasse 19, 4142 Münchenstein, Switzerland

dates: June 15th and November 16th, 2025

photography: Pati Grabowicz | @patigrabowicz

music

concept, producer, and arranger: Steve McQueen

bandleader, producer, and arranger: Marcus Miller

composed and performed by: Steve McQueen, conductor; Marcus Miller, electric bass; Meshell Ndegeocello, electric bass; Aston Barrett Jr., electric bass; Mamadou Kouyaté, bass ngoni; Laura-Simone Martin, upright bass

recording and sound design: Paolo Brandi

recording assistant: Jonny Taylor

video technician and artist assistant: Sue MacDiarmid

bass at schaulager

senior curator: Heidi Naef

planning and installation: Yvo Hartmann

art education: Andreas Blättler

publications: Isabel Friedli, Elsa Himmer

conservation: Marcus Broecker

development: Donna De Salvo

curatorial assistant: Emily Markert

manager of exhibition technology: Randy Gibson

The post steve mcqueen brings immersive light, color and sound installation to schaulager basel appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

From June 16th to June 22nd, 2025, Basel Art Week 2025 unfolds as a city-wide constellation of art and culture, bringing together an array of established and emerging fairs, museum exhibitions, outdoor installations, and conferences. Anchored by Art Basel’s flagship fair, with 289 participating galleries and a riotous takeover of Messeplatz by Katharina Grosse, the week extends into alternative spaces, historic buildings, and the urban fabric itself.

From Liste Art Fair’s pulse on emerging talent to the site-specific programming of Basel Social Club, the return of Digital Art Mile, and MAZE’s inaugural design salon, there’s something for all kinds of creative professionals and enthusiasts alike. Meanwhile, new exhibitions and activations are taking place across the Swiss city’s major art institutions, from Fondation Beyeler, to Kunsthalle Basel and the Schaulager. To help you navigate Basel’s busiest week, designboom’s guide charts the layers of exhibitions, interventions, and events, in and out of the fairs – see all the highlights below.

image courtesy of Art Basel

THE FAIRS

art basel 2025

Art Basel unveils its 2025 edition with a program that expands beyond the fair halls. From June 19 to 22, the city of Basel transforms into a vibrant, multilayered exhibition space with 289 leading galleries from 42 countries and territories presenting works across every medium. Renowned German artist Katharina Grosse leads this year’s standout interventions by turning the Messeplatz into a swirling chromatic environment, curated by Natalia Grabowska of Serpentine. Meanwhile, Unlimited returns under the direction of Giovanni Carmine with 67 monumental projects pushing scale, subject, and format, making it the largest edition of the sector to date.

The Premiere sector debuts this year, offering a focused look at recent works that capture urgent themes and fresh artistic voices. The show also marks the return of Kabinett, featuring 24 curated highlights within gallery booths, and introduce the Art Basel Awards Summit, which celebrates 36 visionaries shaping the art world. The Parcours public art sector, curated once again by Stefanie Hessler, animates the city with over 20 site-specific works responding to the theme of Second Nature. Stretching from Clarastrasse to the Rhine, including interventions at the historic Hotel Merian and Münsterplatz, Parcours transforms Basel’s architecture into a narrative of nature, artifice, and hybridity. 

Basel Art Week 2025 unfolds as a city-wide constellation of creativity | image courtesy of Art Basel

messeplatz

Katharina Grosse brings her radical approach to painting into the heart of Basel as she takes over Messeplatz with CHOIR, a monumental site-specific intervention. Armed with her signature spray gun, the artist drenches the urban square and its surrounding structures in layers of vivid pigment, creating an immersive environment that disrupts the routine flow of public space. Curated by Natalia Grabowska, curator at large for architecture and site-specific projects at Serpentine, London, the work stands as one of the fair’s most anticipated highlights.

Katharina Grosse CHOIR, 2025 Messeplatz project, Art Basel Courtesy of the artist (c) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025 Photography by Jens Ziehe

BMW presents Simply, 2025 by Alvaro Barrington

Alvaro Barrington collaborates with BMW for Art Basel 2025 to present Simply, 2025, a fusion of cutting-edge technology and cultural storytelling. Marking BMW’s 50 years of Art Cars, this latest project reimagines the BMW iX5 Hydrogen through Barrington’s signature colorful lens. Guided by insights from BMW’s hydrogen engineers and inspired by trailblazers like Richard Hamilton, Henri Matisse, David Hockney, and Tina Turner, the artist’s concept bridges past, present, and future, redefining what an Art Car can be in an era of sustainability and cultural reinvention.

image via @bmwgroupculture

liste art fair basel 2025

Liste Art Fair Basel is back for its landmark 30th edition from June 16–22, 2025, a launchpad for fresh voices in contemporary art. Founded in 1996 by a group of young gallerists, Liste has grown into a global hotspot where 99 galleries from 31 countries, with nearly half of them debutants, gather to spotlight emerging talents. Under the leadership of Nikola Dietrich, known for her sharp curatorial eye at Portikus and Kunstmuseum Basel, Liste returns as a platform for critical conversations through its program of performances, talks, workshops, and exhibitions. This year, the fair’s commitment to supporting pioneering practices is amplified by targeted production grants for 11 galleries.

What makes Liste pulse with energy is its embrace of diversity – from galleries presenting playful cultural mashups and political installations to sculptural works that weave sound and history, the fair reads like a global map of artistic exploration. Returning favorites like Cologne’s Drei and Zurich’s Blue Velvet share space with newcomers from Seoul, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and beyond, each offering fresh perspectives on identity, urban life, myth, and ecology.

Innuteq Storch, soon will summer be over, 2023, Wilson Sapplana | image via @liste_art_fair_basel

basel social club

The fourth edition of Basel Social Club, running from June 15th to June 21st, 2025, is moving into the marble-and-vaulted interior of a former private bank in the heart of Grossbasel. More than 100 rooms of the historic Vontobel building will be activated for the first time, opening to the public and marking the launch of FOR ART, Klaus Littmann’s long-term cultural initiative for the site. The 2025 program riffs on the financial legacy of the establishment, reworking its language and architecture to question systems of value, luxury, care, and exchange through a series of site-specific installations, performances, and food encounters.

Inside, expect anything but the typical art fair: a blood bank coexists with wellness suites, jewelry salons, beauty rituals, games, and durational performances. Each room becomes its own world, where spectators turn into participants and conventional hierarchies collapse. 

image via @basel.social.club

the digital art mile

The Digital Art Mile returns to Basel from June 16th to June 22nd, 2025, recharging the city’s art week with digital art as its focal point. Organized by ArtMeta and spread across three distinctive venues, Space25, the 4th Floor, and Kult.Kino Cinema, the fair reclaims Rebgasse as a cultural corridor for digital-native creativity. From generative art and autonomous robots to blockchain-based exhibitions and AI-collaborative works, the week-long programme repositions digital media as an essential thread in contemporary art history. Anchored by the landmark Paintboxed exhibition and a robust two-day conference series, the event bridges past innovation (like the 1980s Quantel Paintbox) with present-day pioneers including Justin Aversano, Ivona Tau, and Simon Denny. Notable sessions include Digital Art in Museums featuring Christiane Paul and Ian Charles Stewart, and Digital Art in Corporations, moderated by designboom, with insights from BMW’s Prof. Dr. Thomas Girst and UBS Digital Art Museum’s Ulrich Schrauth.

image courtesy of ArtMeta

MAZE

MAZE Design Basel, running on June 16th and June 17th, 2025, fills the void left by Design Miami/Basel with an intimate, high-caliber design salon. Set in the neo-Gothic Offene Kirche Elisabethen, the two-day event brings together 11 leading galleries, including Galerie Kreo, Salon 94, and Pierre-Marie Giraud, for a focused showcase of collectible design from the 1950s to today. Historic works by Jacques Adnet and François-Xavier Lalanne appear alongside contemporary pieces by Herzog & de Meuron and the Bouroullec brothers. 

Offene Kirche Elisabethen | image courtesy of MAZE

June Art Fair

Since its launch in 2019, June Art Fair has been carving out a niche as the indie antidote to the usual art fair frenzy. Set inside a raw concrete bunker reimagined by Herzog & de Meuron just a stone’s throw from Messeplatz, June offers a program where community, dialogue, and cross-generational exchange come together.

With a roster including galleries like VI, VII (Oslo), Christian Andersen (Copenhagen), and Galerie Fabian Lang (Zurich), the fair fosters an atmosphere of calm and connection, amplified by its leafy neighbor, the Landhof Community Garden, a green oasis perfectly matching June’s ethos of housing high-caliber art inside a thoughtful space. Special projects like People’s Soup and The Garden Cinema deepen this spirit of collaboration, making June a key chill spot to discover fresh voices during Basel Art Week, running June 16th – 22nd, 2025.

image courtesy of June Art Fair

MUSEUMS, EXHIBITIONS, AND EVENTS

swiss design awards

Running parallel to Art Basel, the Swiss Design Awards take place from June 17th until June 22nd, 2025, spotlighting the most compelling design talent working in and from Switzerland today. Held in Hall 1.1 of Messe Basel, the exhibition showcases 53 finalist projects selected by a jury of the Federal Design Commission and invited experts, culminating in the announcement of 17 prize winners. 

This year’s edition unfolds in a high-stakes, two-round jury process, with a physical exhibition functioning as the final stage of judging. Alongside the finalist presentations, visitors can engage with video portraits and a new publication dedicated to the Swiss Grand Prix Design laureates, offering rare, unpublished insights into their practices. 

chair design by Guy Meldem | image via @swissdesignawards

Schaulager

Twelve years after his landmark exhibition at Schaulager, Steve McQueen returns to the Basel institution with Bass (2024). Known for his powerful films and deeply sensory installations, the Turner Prize–winning artist and Oscar-winning filmmaker now presents his most abstract work to date, a spatial composition of light, color, and sound that stretches perception to its limits. Site-specifically conceived for Schaulager’s unique architecture, Bass invites visitors into an immersive environment where form dissolves and sensation takes over, exploring how immaterial elements can shape our understanding of time and space.

In typical McQueen fashion, the work bypasses narrative in favor of pure atmospheric impact. ‘Light and sound… can sneak into any nook and cranny,’ he reflects, and Bass does exactly that, filling the building like vapor or scent. 

Steve McQueen, Bass, 2024, LED Light and Sound, Courtesy the artist, Co-commissioned work by Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel and Dia Art Foundation, 15 June – 16 November 2025, Schaulager® Münchenstein/Basel (Installation view), Photo: Pati Grabowicz, © Steve McQueen

Fondation Beyeler

Fondation Beyeler presents a convergence of three distinct artistic visions under one roof. From June 15th to September 21st, 2025, it hosts the most comprehensive European survey in nearly two decades of Vija Celmins, whose meticulous renderings of night skies, spider webs, and ocean surfaces invite a quiet, immersive gaze. Tracing her journey from war-inflected early works to the spatial poetics of her recent pieces, the show reveals how Celmins’ practice bridges the personal and the cosmic, the intimate and the infinite. Sculptures, which she calls ‘three-dimensional paintings,’ round out a body of work that transforms the act of looking into an act of deep attention.

Running concurrently is ‘There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend: One day, the black will swallow the red’, a rehang of the Beyeler’s painting collection. This bold display draws unexpected parallels between icons like Picasso, Basquiat, Dumas, and Rothko, and introduces the museum debut of Gerhard Richter’s digital projection Moving Picture (946-3), Kyoto Version. Meanwhile, Jordan Wolfson’s Little Room uses VR to dissolve the boundaries between bodies, minds, and identities. In this disorienting, uncanny duet between self and other, Wolfson stretches the emotional and perceptual capacities of virtual space – turning visitors into both subject and mirror in a speculative dance of recognition.

Vija Celmins, Clouds, 1968, Graphite on paper, 34.9 x 47 cm, Collection Ayea + Mikey Sohn, Los Angeles © Vija Celmins, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery | image by McKee Gallery, New York

Kunstmuseum Basel

Kunstmuseum Basel NEUBAU shines a long-overdue spotlight on one of sculpture’s most radical innovators with Medardo Rosso: Inventing Modern Sculpture. Co-curated by Heike Eipeldauer and Elena Filipovic in collaboration with mumok Vienna, the retrospective brings together around fifty of Rosso’s fragile, light-sensitive sculptures and an expansive archive of 250 photographs and drawings, illuminating his deeply experimental approach to form, media, and artistic identity. Often cast in wax or plaster and shown under shifting light conditions, Rosso’s works resist fixity, hovering between presence and dissolution.

A contemporary of Rodin and a precursor to artists like Brâncuși and Hesse, Rosso challenged the very definition of sculpture. He photographed his own works obsessively, staged them in carefully curated installations, and blurred boundaries between object, image, and illusion. This exhibition not only traces Rosso’s contributions to the avant-garde circles of turn-of-the-century Milan and Paris, but repositions him as a central figure in the story of modern sculpture.

Dialogues with over sixty artists, including Lynda Benglis, Edgar Degas, David Hammons, Meret Oppenheim, and Alina Szapocznikow, underscore the enduring relevance of Rosso’s practice, which continues to echo across conceptual, feminist, and post-minimalist traditions.

Bambino malato, Medardo Rosso, 1895 Plaster, 17.5 × 20 × 19.3 cm Object ID: 86100 Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio Photo: mumok / Markus Wörgötter

Kunsthalle Basel

At Kunsthalle Basel Marie Matusz’s Canons and Continents transforms the back wall of the institution into a field of mirrored vitrines that both obscure and reflect, exploring the porosity of cultural canons and geopolitical borders through sculptural precision and conceptual opacity. Inside the museum, Dala Nasser’s debut exhibition in Switzerland turns to abstraction as a means of resistance and reclamation, using cyanotype-treated fabrics and earth-indexed surfaces to evoke a landscape marked by erasure, infrastructural decay, and histories left unspoken, most poignantly through the imagined reconstruction of a lost Byzantine church in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Ser Serpas stages a raw convergence of performance, painting, and sculpture, deconstructing corporeal forms and temporalities in collaboration with the Margo Korableva Performance Theatre. 

Canons and Continents by Marie Matusz | image courtesy of Kunsthalle Basel

Kunsthaus Baselland

At Kunsthaus Baselland, the group exhibition Whispers from Tides and Forests, on view until August 17th 2025, invites viewers into a space of quiet urgency, where delicate gestures echo loud shifts in global ecologies and social narratives. Featuring works by Caroline Bachmann, Johanna Calle, Lena Laguna Diel, Abi Palmer, Nohemí Pérez, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Belén Rodríguez, Ana Silva, Julia Steiner, Surma, and Liu Yujia, the show foregrounds subtle yet potent responses to planetary crisis, forced migration, and the fragility of shared landscapes.

Moving between continents and media, the exhibition resists grand declarations, instead offering tender, tactile stories that reimagine the human relationship to time, space, and nature. From forest canopies to riverbeds, from whispered grief to acts of resilience, these works resonate with what anthropologist Anna Tsing calls ‘the end of the old stories’, leaving space instead for new, uncertain, and care-driven futures.

Lena Laguna Diel: De quien sembramos las semillas (From whom we sow the seeds), 2025. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view Kunsthaus Baselland 2025 | image by Gina Folly

Museum Tinguely

At Museum Tinguely, three exhibitions explore power, fluidity, and collective memory through radically different lenses. In De tu puño y letra (By Your Own Hand), Suzanne Lacy confronts viewers with a chilling yet crucial spatial encounter: male-presenting participants read letters detailing gender-based violence written by women-identifying survivors. Filmed in a bullfighting arena in Quito, symbolically charged with dominance and violence, the circular projection places visitors at the center of a social reckoning. 

Running concurrently, Midnight Zone dives into the elemental depths with Julian Charrière’s multi-floor solo exhibition. Here, water is not backdrop but protagonist, a living medium of climate, crisis, and collective history. Through film, photography, sculpture, and newly commissioned works, Charrière renders the invisible circulations of the Earth as immersive, affective worlds. Between these two, Scream Machines – Art Ghost Train turns up the surreal with a kinetic homage to Jean Tinguely’s 1977 Crocrodrome. Artists Rebecca Moss and Augustin Rebetez reanimate a vintage ghost train with absurd sculptures, eerie mechanics, and chaotic humor. 

Julian Charrière, The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories III, 2013. Copyright: © 2025 ProLitteris, Zürich; Copyright the Artist

HEK (house of electronic arts)

During Art Basel Week, HEK (House of Electronic Arts) becomes a nucleus of expanded digital vision, presenting a dense program that spans AI, virtual worlds, and pan-Asian perspectives. The current exhibition Other Intelligences investigates how machine learning reshapes concepts of cognition, agency, and empathy, pushing the boundaries of what constitutes intelligence in contemporary culture. 

In parallel, HEK hosts the 6th VH AWARD, a prestigious initiative by Hyundai Motor Group spotlighting emerging digital artists from Asia. From June 16th–22nd, works by finalists Lena Bui, Huda x Mungomery, Tianyi Sun & Fiel Guhit, Wendi Yan, and Inhwa Yeom are shown on a large-scale LED screen on HEK’s outdoor platform, culminating in a panel discussion and award ceremony on June 17th. Expanding beyond the museum walls, the ARTour, curated by HEK director Sabine Himmelsbach—, ctivates public space with augmented reality artworks across Basel, while ArtMeta’s Digital Art Mile along the Kleinbasel Rhine embankment hosts a surge of exhibitions and events that trace the pulse of the global digital art scene.

Jodi | div. [property]

Vitra Design Museum

The Vitra Design Museum dives into the enduring legacy of the shakers with The Shakers: A World in the Making, an exhibition that brings together a collection of finely crafted shaker furniture, architectural fragments, tools, and commercial objects. Curated alongside fresh commissions by contemporary artists and designers, the show unpacks the complex social, spiritual, and material fabric behind the iconic shaker style, an aesthetic rooted in community values and functionality that still resonates today. 

Installation view, The Shakers: A World in the Making, © Vitra Design Museum | image by Bernhard Strauss

Vitra Schaudepot

Vitra Design Museum explores the evolving dialogue between science fiction and design in Science fiction design: from space age to metaverse, on view at Vitra Schaudepot until May 10th, 2026. Featuring over 100 objects from the collection of the museum, the exhibition traces how science fiction has shaped – and been shaped by – design, from early 20th-century visions and space-age aesthetics to digital objects made for the metaverse.

Staged in a futuristic scenography by Argentine artist and designer Andrés Reisinger, the show brings together iconic pieces by Gae Aulenti, Joe Colombo, Verner Panton, and Joris Laarman alongside furniture from classic sci-fi films and Reisinger’s own NFT-born creations. 

Anouk Wipprecht Audi A4 Dress | image courtesy of Vitra Design Museum

maison CLEARING

As Art Basel 2025 unfolds, CLEARING Gallery marks its 15th anniversary with Maison CLEARING, a distinctive off-site exhibition, housed in a historic four-story villa just steps from Messeplatz and the Rhine. Inside the refined rooms of the villa and throughout its lush 1,000-square-meter garden, over 50 international artists, including Violet Dennison, Kayode Ojo, Tomasz Kowalski, Marina Pinsky, and Sara Flores, present works across painting, sculpture, installation, and video. Deliberately slowing the pace of the fair, Maison CLEARING invites visitors to linger, talk, and connect, proposing an alternative to the transactional atmosphere of the main halls. 

image courtesy of CLEARING

project info:

event: Basel Art Week 2025

location: Basel, Switzerland

dates: June 16th – June 22nd, 2025

The post designboom’s guide to basel art week 2025: what to do in and out of the fairs appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

From June 16 to 22, 2025, Basel becomes home to the inaugural edition of Digital Art Mile— a new and ambitious initiative by ArtMeta that transforms the historic Rebgasse district into a vibrant epicenter for digital creativity. This week-long event runs in parallel with Art Basel and offers a curated alternative that addresses a conspicuous absence: digital art. Spread across Space25, the 4th Floor, and Kult.Kino Cinema, the fair gathers an international network of artists, curators, collectors, and technologists to explore how digital media reshapes the canon of contemporary art. With exhibitions, robotic installations, and conferences led by global voices in art and culture, Digital Art Mile invites both industry professionals and curious publics to rethink the boundaries of art in a digital age.

For first-time visitors, Digital Art Mile offers a paradigm shift. From interactive to historically rich displays, the fair seeks to challenge preconceptions. ArtMeta seeks to convince the skeptics that digital art isn’t just about speculation and NFTs— it’s about a rich, evolving art form rooted in dialogue and human imagination.

From June 16 to 22, 2025, Basel becomes home to the inaugural edition of Digital Art Mile | all images courtesy of ArtMeta

the fair introduces the digital art mile 

ArtMeta, co-founded by curator and digital art pioneer Georg Bak and digital entrepreneur Roger Haas, is carving out a distinct path for how digital art is experienced, understood, and collected. The platform originally emerged from their mutual desire to elevate digital art beyond novelty, rooting it instead within a broader historical and cultural narrative.

For its 2025 Basel edition, ArtMeta introduces the Digital Art Mile, conceived as a boutique fair with curated exhibitions and educational programming. Unlike conventional commercial events, its focus lies in thematic cohesion and historical dialogue, linking the legacy of early digital pioneers to the cutting edge of blockchain, AI, and Web3. Through its growing curatorial reach, ArtMeta positions itself as an anchor point in the evolving landscape of digital-native cultural production.

Hackatao – PAINTBOX – Primitives (2025)

artists, curators, collectors, and technologists all meet in basel

Digital Art Mile 2025 offers an immersive entry point into the pluralistic worlds of digital art, from generative image-making and robotics to blockchain-based collecting and AI-driven creativity. This edition’s programming explores intersections between human expression and machine logic, between analog legacy and virtual futures. Beyond exhibitions, the fair includes a four-day conference series at Kult.Kino Cinema that brings together leading thinkers such as Christiane Paul (Whitney Museum), Ian Charles Stewart (Toledo Museum Labs), Sebastien Borget (The Sandbox), and Prof. Dr. Thomas Girst (BMW). Through these multi-perspective discussions, the fair aims not only to showcase the state of digital art but also to create frameworks for its institutional integration, economic viability, and cultural resonance.

Bryan Brinkman in the studio of Adrian Wilson

Bryan Brinkman – Love Bytes (2025)

A central highlight at Rebgasse 25 is the ‘Paintboxed’ exhibition, a landmark collaboration between ArtMeta, Objkt, and the Tezos Foundation. It resurrects the Quantel Paintbox, a pioneering digital painting tool from the 1980s, celebrated for its pivotal role in transforming visual culture—from MTV graphics to the iconic posters of ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’ Paintboxed positions this forgotten chapter of digital history in conversation with the present.

Artists including Justin Aversano, Grant Yun, Ivona Tau, Hackatao, and Simon Denny were invited to create new works using one of the few remaining functional Paintboxes. Tau even collaborated with ChatGPT to receive step-by-step generative painting instructions, blurring the boundaries between human intuition and AI guidance. These new creations are displayed in lightboxes and paired with NFTs minted on the Tezos Foundation blockchain, allowing collectors to own dual manifestations of the same work—both analog and digital.

Sabato Visconti – Mecha Rosie (2025)

Coldie, Keith Haring – Decentral Eyes (2025)

Located at Rebgasse 31, the 4th Floor reimagines a former warehouse as a future-forward gallery ecosystem, hosting some of the most experimental names in the space. Objkt.com presents ‘We Emotional Cyborgs: On Avatars and AI Agents,’ curated by Anika Meier—a provocative exploration of virtual identity and post-human aesthetics. Robotic artworks take center stage in Bright Moments’ ‘Automata,’ which includes autonomous painting machines creating works in real-time. Historic pioneers such as Waldemar Cordeiro, Manfred Mohr, and Joan Truckenbrod are spotlighted by Mayor Gallery, RCM, and Galerie Charlot, positioning digital art within a longer, often overlooked lineage.

Other participants include The Sigg Art Foundation, Cypherdudes, LaCollection, and Sarasin Foundation, each offering unique vignettes into contemporary crypto culture. A lounge hosted by Tezos Foundation offers a space to engage with the underlying technology.

Exhibition view 2024 – Aleksandra Jovanovic 2 (2025)

Digital Art Mile expands its cultural footprint with a robust conference series held at Kult.Kino Cinema on June 17 and 18. The talks tackle vital topics such as the role of digital art in museums, the evolution of AI-generated creativity, and how corporations are adopting NFTs and digital aesthetics into their branding and storytelling. Notable sessions include ‘Digital Art in Museums’ featuring Christiane Paul and Ian Charles Stewart, and ‘Digital Art in Corporations,’ moderated by designboom, with insights from Miko Hensel – Team Head Tech Banking of Maerki Baumann, DooEun Choi – Vice President and Art Director of Hyundai Motor, Prof. Dr. Thomas Girst – Global Head of Cultural Engagement of BMW Group, and Ulrich Schrauth – Artistic Director of UBS Digital Art Museum. According to Bak, these sessions aim to close the gap between the institutional canonization of digital art and the vibrant discourse happening on social media. A particular point of interest is the integration of crypto culture in legacy institutions and how corporate players like UBS, Arab Bank, and luxury brands are shaping their own digital art narratives.

By building a space where curated exhibitions meet educational discourse, the fair aspires to become the leading marketplace and forum for digital art worldwide. Looking ahead, ArtMeta plans to expand its editorial output and continue fostering deeper conversations across cities and continents.

Adrian Wilson – Team For Hair 1985

Kiki Picasso, Fondateur de Quantel – Peter Michael par Kiki Picasso (2025)

Adrian Wilson – GPB Collage 1986

OMGiDRAWEDit, So Revival, 2025

project info:

name: Digital Art Mile
organization: ArtMeta | @artmetaofficial

dates: June 16 – 22, 2025

location: Rebgasse, Basel, Switzerland

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After the sudden cancellation of Design Miami/Basel, a new chapter begins with MAZE Design Basel stepping in with a bold vision for collectible design. Launching on June 16th–17th, 2025, the event brings together leading international galleries in the evocative setting of the neo-gothic church Offene Kirche Elisabethen, right across from the Kunsthalle, and right on time for Basel’s peak cultural week. Participating galleries include Kreo, Salon 94, Pierre-Marie Giraud, Galerie Mitterrand, Thomas Fritsch – Atrium, Jousse Entreprise, Ketabi Bourdet, Galerie Gastou, Laffanour | Galerie Downtown, Meubles et Lumières, and Thomsen Gallery.

Mouton de Pierre by François-Xavier Lalanne | image by Studio Shapiro, courtesy of Galerie Mitterrand

neo-gothic church sets the stage

MAZE Design Basel, a newly formed salon under the growing MAZE constellation, transforms Offene Kirche Elisabethen into a sanctuary for collectible design from the 1950s to today. Set directly across from the Kunsthalle, the event aims to become a vital new ritual in the art world’s annual pilgrimage to Basel.

The venue itself plays an atmospheric role, as Offene Kirche Elisabethen’s lofty nave and stained-glass windows provide a dramatic counterpoint to the modern and postmodern works on display. Rather than the sterile fairgrounds of convention centers, the salon offers a more intimate format, aligning with the MAZE philosophy of immersive art experiences in architecturally charged settings.

Responding swiftly to the absence left by Miami/Basel’s departure, eleven leading dealers specializing in decorative and collectible design have coalesced to shape this two-day salon. With a curatorial mindset and market-savvy instinct, they present a panorama of exceptional objects across eras and disciplines. 

Mexique by Charlotte Perriand | image courtesy of Jousse Entreprise

eleven galleries to shape the two-day salon

At MAZE Design Basel, Galerie Gastou leads with the historical debut of Coque, an iconic sculptural armchair by Philippe Hiquily, alongside a new variation of his Gombert console. The presentation deepens with rare 1980s works by André Dubreuil and a parchment-clad 1937 sideboard by Jacques Adnet, bridging modernist elegance and metallic baroque. Laffanour | Galerie Downtown underscores its legacy in radical 20th-century design with a museum-grade selection by Prouvé, Perriand, Le Corbusier, Zanine Caldas, and Takis—figures whose experimental visions reshaped how we inhabit space.

Across the board, galleries embrace material experimentation and sculptural language. Galerie Mitterrand revisits the dreamlike utility of François-Xavier Lalanne, with signature pieces like the Rhinocrétaire and Moutons de laine. Pierre Marie Giraud brings a refined palette of contemporary ceramics and glass, highlighted by Herzog & de Meuron’s Duo Iuga table. Thomas Fritsch—Artrium anchors the ceramic revival with postwar French works by Georges Jouve and Suzanne Ramié. Galerie Kreo continues its mission as a design laboratory with editions by Abloh, the Bouroullecs, and Marc Newson, while Galerie Meubles et Lumières traces a luminous arc through 1950s–1980s French and Italian design with icons like Gino Sarfatti and Pierre Paulin. 

Jousse Entreprise showcases a sharp curatorial mix from Perriand to emerging talents. Ketabi Bourdet juxtaposes works by young artists like Inès Longevial and Audrey Guttman with landmark design pieces by Philippe Starck and Martin Szekely. Finally, Thomsen Gallery introduces a distinct voice with Japanese art ranging from antique tea ceramics and bamboo baskets to Gutai-era ink works and contemporary minimalism. 

Gourd-Shaped Flower Basket by Tanabe Chikuunsai II (1910-2000), Japan | image courtesy of Thomsen Gallery, New York

Bridge Présidence armchair, ca. 1950, Présidence desk, ca. 1950, and Lecture Hall bench, ca. 1956 by Jean Prouvé | image courtesy of Laffanour – Galerie Downtown

Easylight by Philippe Stark, circa 1979 | image by Studio Shapiro, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Ketabi Bourdet

All’Aperto coffee table by Pierre Charpin | image © Alexandra de Cossette, courtesy of Galerie Kreo

Duo Iuga table, designed in collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron | image courtesy of Pierre-Marie Giraud

image courtesy of Meubles et Lumières

Gombert, console, 1980, by Philippe Hiquily, Bouclier, mirror, circa 1987 and Perles, candlesticks, circa 1990, by André Dubreuil | image by Edouard Auffray, courtesy of Galerie Gastou

Offene Kirche Elisabethen | image courtesy of MAZE

MAZE location | Offene Kirche Elisabethen (Open church of St. Elisabeth), image courtesy of Basel Tourismus

project info:

event: MAZE Design Basel

dates: June 16th – June 17th, 2025

location: Offene Kirche Elisabethen, Basel, Switzerland

participants: Thomas Fritsch – Atrium | @thomas_fritsch (Paris), Galerie Gastou | @galerieyvesgastou (Paris), Pierre-Marie Giraud | @pierre_marie_giraud (Brussels), Jousse Entreprise | @galeriejousseentreprise, @jousseentreprise (Paris), Ketabi Bourdet | @ketabibourdet (Paris), Kreo | @galeriekreo (Paris), Laffanour – Galerie Downtown | @laffanourgaleriedowntown (Paris), Meubles et Lumières | @galeriemeublesetlumieres (Paris), Galerie Mitterrand | @galerie_mitterrand (Paris), Salon 94 | @salon94 (New York), Thomsen Gallery | @thomsengallery (New York)

special projects: Nikos Koulis Jewels, Reflets de Nouvel (cocktail bar installation), JRP|Editions

organized by: MAZE Art Salons | @maze.presents

The post meet MAZE, the new collectible salon stepping in after design miami/basel’s cancellation appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.