Me and my team had the honour to attend the 48th edition of Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. Art Basel is one of the most prestigious art fairs in the world and features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More than 2,500 artists present their paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works.

As the only Swiss Art Blog represented, I present my favourite works & impressions from the exclusive Media reception.

Art Basel announced its gallery list for the 48th edition in Basel, Switzerland, taking place from June 15 to June 18, 2017. This year, 291 international galleries present works ranging from the early 20th century to contemporary artists (click here for the full list of galleries attending).

The Basel show, whose Lead Partner is UBS, presents galleries from 34 countries and six continents. UBS has been supporting the fair for more than 20 years.

I attended the media reception & preview and here are some of the vast impressions of the preview day.

Unlimited

Before entering the Unlimited section, Barbara Kruger’s red work Untitled (Our people are better than your people) caught my eye. While entering, Otto Piene’s huge inflatable sculpture Blue Star Linz transferred me into an under-the-sea-environment. This was just the start to the exploration of a very-well curated Unlimited Art Basel section by Gianni Jetzer:

Top 10 works which caught my attention:

1. Imi Knoebel Konstellationen, 1975  

   

2. Nick Cave Speak Louder, 2011 

   

3. Tobias Rehberger Performance of two lonely objects that have a lot in common, 2014  

   

4. Thomas Huber vis-à-vis II, 2014  

   

5. Julio Le Parc La Longue Marche, 1974
    Julio Le Parc La Longue Marche, 1974, Perrotin, Galeria Nara Roesler
6. Julian Charrière + Julius von Bismarck, Objects in mirror might be closer than they appear, 2016

   

7. Subodh Gupta Cooking the World, 2017   

   

8. Sylvie Fleury Skylark 

   

9. Chris Burden Ode to Santos-Dumont

   

10. Otto Piene Blue Star Linz, 1980 

    

Media reception

Remarks by:

• Marc Spiegler, Global Director, Art Basel
• Jürg Zeltner, President UBS Wealth Management
• Gianni Jetzer, Curator Unlimited, Art Basel
• Maxa Zoller, Curator Film, Art Basel
• Samuel Leuenberger, Curator Parcours, Art Basel

Watch the video below:

The media reception was well structured, informative, yet not tiring. Particularly Maxa Zoller’s speech and inclusion of work’s by Andy Warhol in this year’s film programme was notable. Andy Warhol’s films are one of the program highlights of this year.

 

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Take care & write to you soon.

Pictures: Sebastian Magnani