Basel Social Club turns a Swiss bank into a wild art exhibition

A universe away from the glitz and light of Messeplatz, the gritty Basel Social Club (BSC) once again surpasses Basel’s art fatigue. It’s confusing – it’s not a bad thing. In the fourth edition, the Rogue nonprofit exhibition platform has taken over a settled private bank in Grossbase, passing through the corner of Art Basel and Kunstmuseum. Here, over 100 rooms are reconceived as a living breathing artwork. From blood bank to beauty salons, the former vault now trades with irony and intimacy, blurring the line between luxury and necessity. First, the one-time juggling of the main fairs, now Basel’s most important counterprogramming. It is free admission (Art Basel (Art Basel) charges CHF 69 (approximately USD 70) for non-venomous), and unpredictably, it makes it very active.

One thing about Basel Social Club and Basel Art is that they are both unstoppable. But this year’s Bachelor of Science has paid an extra miles. The whole thing is punk, and even at the main expo, Rothko, Picasso and Baselitz’s Blue-Chip are here, and also offer Basel Social Club as a must see. There is art in every corner and every wall. Sometimes you have to walk through it in a show like this, in which case a struggling woman pushes a vacuum from about 1970s onto the carpet and every room on the carpet as she lives in her phone on the selfie stick.

The three speeches are symbols of the spirit of the BSC. Harlesden High Street and Kendra Jayne Patrick’s joint effort, this is a The whole Lotta Money (in this Muf **)is a fully functional black hair salon with the smell of shea butter. It highlights how these spaces like this serve as cultural archives for political forums, style centers and various black communities. It is juxtaposed with button construction of Swiss discretion and generational wealth.

Artists include This is a sum of money Implement this concept with wisdom and texture. Daniel Jasper’s hand-painted Ghana movie poster facing the smug 1978 Volksbank ad. Nearby, Africanus Okokon Riffs has a ghostly covering of tribal fear on the hairstyle poster, while André Magaña offers a 3D printed copy of the golden Cartier bracelet. Faisal Abdu’allah with his Barber shop: On-site salon He is writing a show of real hairstyles and real conversations with an old-fashioned Swiss barber chair. While I was there, a woman was trimming in her 80s while a young man was waiting in line.

Another highlight is 1★Comments Journey Artists Guillaume Bijl and Hanne Lippard presented by Gallery Super Dakota in Brussels. It requires a cheeky goal, the tyranny of a comment system based on the online stars, increasingly determines what is worth seeing, eating, buying or avoiding. As a video paper framework, the audience is invited to relax when sitting on a standard mechanical massage chair, while you can check it out through the headrest of the Shiatsu massage chair or when you hear “Basel in Basel’s Roche Tower 1 is certainly the ugliest building in Switzerland”. “most 1★Comments Journey Explore how platforms such as Google and Yelp reduce complex locations to numerical consensus, thus filtering the world through algorithmic value judgments, thus benefiting measurable and meaningful.

To participate, Zurich-based Gallery Suns.works chose to make the most of the former bank by opening the vault. Located in the basement of the building Bijoux Solaires The room was remodeled to become a glittering jewelry boutique to hoard and hide wealth, everything for sale. The theme here is the theme of the summer solstice, and the products here are from experienced jewelers, as well as artists who try to decorate with medium. Antiques include jewelry once owned by Meret Oppenheim and Andy Warhol. The ring of artist Johanna Dahm is not to be missed. Each was made of a 20g gold bar from the former bank Suisse and fired a round of shells with a machine gun.

Basel social club isn’t Basel’s only option this week. Just a few steps from Messeplatz is the June Art Fair, where he has a sharp, gallery-led show in the renovated concrete bunker at Herzog & de Meuron. Founded in 2019, June is a quieter opposite to the big expo, bringing together an intergenerational lineup of artists and dealers in an environment that facilitates conversation rather than business. The adjacent Landhoff Community Garden has added a welcome dose of calming, making June a necessary respirator and one of the most thoughtful exhibitions of the week.

This year, Clearing, which has gallery outposts in New York and Los Angeles, has decided to skip Basel artworks, list Art and list completely, and opt for Maison Clearing, which is Maison Clearing, about 10 minutes from Messeplatz, a sprawling takeover of a house in Bannwartweg 39. With projects spreading internal rooms and a 10,000-square-foot garden, the gallery is taking place in its own satellite universe. Screenings in the attic, suppers on the lawn, like a Bachelor of Science, free admission makes it one of the smartest detours of the week. The project is curated by Clearing’s newly appointed programming Olamiju Fajemisin and includes over 40 artists including Sebastian Black, Violet Dennison, Tobias Kaspar and Zak Kitnick.

Basel has no shortage of products this week, from major fairs to exhibitions from its top institutions. But it’s an alternative venue, especially the Basel Social Club, that makes the week so active.