Basel | Valanzo

When people tells me that contemporary art is snob I tend to disagree. Yes, it can be an as amusing as expensive hobby, but also a big, international community where to find opportunities, events and more. A clear example is Art Basel: during the week the fair is in town, the city itselfs hosts all the parallel exhibitions.

I went first to Volta 10, to feel the New York vibrations. It was a nice, niche exhibition at Markthalle, the indoor market, spot-on location next to the train station.

I let myself playing a bit with the blues and vibrance, sorry 😉

vvolta 10

Of the 70 galleries I put my eyes on Fred Eerdekens at Spencer Brownstone Gallery mural. I was in love with the semplicity and spectacular effect on visitors (moi-même)

Fred Eerdekens

Special mention to Michael Reisch at SCHLEUBLEIN +BAK and Marian Drew at Dianne Tanzer Gallery + Project, go visit her website to be amused by “alternative still life”.

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The next day I visited Scope. It was in an industrial hangar along river Rhein next to the border with Germany and France, a direct view to pharmaceutical companies. Since the backseat location the place was not overcrowded; that gave me the possibility to chat with gallerists and people around. Good experience.

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Hellow.

I didn’t see any breathtaking work, but for sure I was positively impressed by some galleries, like Wanrooij Gallery and Koh Sang Woo’s “Decoding Women” project

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My special mention goes to Roberto Fanari’s Solo Exhibition at gallerianumero38, a bit of Italian pride on my side. If you are around Lucca-Tuscany, go visit this gallery, people were lovely and works really worthy.

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Another day, another fair! Unlimited is part of Art Basel, designed for installations, video art and bis shiny stuff. Love it.

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unlimited 3 unlimited 4

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A great after-fair is to chill along the river, while watching people floating in the Rhein (funny fact about the city: citizens float down the river with Wickelfisch, a designed waterproof bag to keep your clothes and belongings dry while enjoying a free water ride).

basel river

Thanks to my lovely host and Swiss friend Nadia. See you next year, same place same time, I might float myself too afterwards.

basel river 2

P.S. All pictures taken with mobile phone, some filtered, some naturally blurry and pixeled. Sorry.

The following post will be a highly promotional essay about Art Basel. If you are against contemporary art or you think the matter might offend or hurt your feelings please do not continue to read and go back doing what you were doing. Please beware that any complaint will be forwarded to Bruce.

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Just kidding. This above is an amusing work by the Bruce High Quality Foundation in Brooklyn. Go check them out.

Let’s start again with a statement: If you are into contemporary art, you must at least once go to Basel, let’s say a weekend in June.

Basel – lovely Swiss city where everybody speaks 3 languages and pretends to understand them too – has itself a remarkable amount of good museums, such as the Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst and Museum Tinguely, but for the past 45 years it has also been hosting a massive art fair, the most important one on the Planet. Here some datas about the undiscussed supremacy: http://www.artlyst.com/articles/art-basel-45-retains-its-supremacy-in-the-art-marketplace.

So what’s special about it? The quantity? The quality? The events and sub-fairs around it? All of it. It is a very nice way to spend a weekend, believe me. I saw so many good artworks my eyes were hurting. I especially loved a Jaume Plensa’s sculpture…

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