The 2023 edition of Art Basel in Basel will feature 284 of the world’s leading galleries from across the globe, showcasing the highest quality of works across all media including painting, sculpture, photography, and digital artworks. 21 first-time participants will join a robust line-up of European exhibitors and returning galleries from around the world. In addition to remarkable presentations in its Galleries, Feature, Statements, and Edition sectors, Art Basel 2023 will present 76 large-scale installations and performances in Unlimited, while the Kabinett sector will debut at the Basel edition to spotlight distinct curated exhibitions within the main booths of exhibitors. Showcasing Art Basel’s ongoing commitment to dynamic public programming, 26 site-specific public art projects in Parcours and Latifa Echakhch’s activation of the city’s Messeplatz will transform Basel’s public spaces. Free to the public, Art Basel’s Conversations series will explore topics of care, collectivity, and connectivity, while the Film program will showcase a unique lineup of surveys, documentaries, and a special program on sci-fi and magical realism. ‘We look forward to bringing the international artworld together this June for another premier edition of our show in Basel, which will once again stage ambitious curated sectors both within halls and throughout the city,’ says Vincenzo de Bellis, Director, Fairs and Exhibition Platforms. ‘We are particularly excited to introduce Kabinett to our Basel show for the first time, offering visitors the opportunity to dive deeper into an artist’s practice through focused solo and thematic presentations within galleries’ booths. Unlimited returns with 76 exceptional projects and an ever-broader range of artistic positions that challenge and expand traditional narratives. Outside the halls, Parcours celebrates its largest edition to date, with 26 installations that engage with the specificities of space and temporality.’
Unlimited
Art Basel’s unique sector for large-scale projects, Unlimited provides exhibitors the opportunity to present monumental installations, colossal sculptures, boundless wall paintings, comprehensive photo series, and expansive video projections. Unlimited will be curated for the third time by Giovanni Carmine, Director of the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen.
Parcours
Returning to Basel’s city center with 26 site-specific projects and performances, this year’s Parcours will be presented under the theme ‘Word of Mouth’ and reflect on the current state of artmaking as a means of expression that translates social and political communication. Parcours is curated by Samuel Leuenberger, founder of the non-profit exhibition spaces SALTS in Birsfelden and Country SALTS in Bennwil. Access to all Parcours projects is free to the public.
Kabinett
Kabinett, the sector dedicated to curated and thematic presentations featured in a separate section within galleries’ main booths, will make its debut at the Basel show with 13 presentations from 14 galleries.
Messeplatz
The city’s Messeplatz will feature a site-specific presentation by Moroccan, Swiss-based artist Latifa Echakhch, curated by Samuel Leuenberger, Curator for Parcours at Art Basel. Echakhch, who represented Switzerland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, has a long tradition of working with deconstructed stages – the symbol of wreckage and ruins – to uncover the hopes and possibilities contained within. A sprawling superstructure situated in the Messeplatz will be the backdrop for a series of live concerts and performances organized in collaboration with Luc Meier, Director of La Becque Artist Residency. The musical acts interrogate the fundamentals of sound and music-making as a shared experience between the artist and the audience. Beyond the performances, the various islands and stage settings will be available for the public to sing, recite poetry, share knowledge, or simply come to rest.
Film
The Film program presents a week of extraordinary artists’ cinema projects and is curated by Filipa Ramos, founding curator of the online video platform Vdrome and lecturer at the Arts Institute of the FHNW in Basel, in collaboration with Marian Masone, New York-based independent curator.
Conversations
Curated by Emily Butler, Conversations brings together today’s most inspiring cultural figures. The series will feature over 50 thought leaders as they exchange on the key topics shaping the world of art and culture. This edition will focus on the subjects of care, collectivity, and connectivity and will feature panels focusing on artist-led spaces on the African continent, parenthood in the arts, the more inclusive architecture of museums in the future, and the ethical and artistic implications of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology.
For more information please visit https://www.artbasel.com/
