Art Parcours through the Basel cheap store mile to Messeplatz
Published: Monday, Jun 10th 2024, 16:50
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With the opening of the freely accessible Art Parcours and the highly exclusive preview of the Unlimited sector, the Art Basel art fair sent out its harbingers on Monday. This year, the parcours leads through the cheap store mile to the exhibition center.
It is almost a paradigm shift that has taken place with the handover of the Parcours management from Samuel Leuenberger to Stefanie Hessler. The director of the Swiss Institute in New York has moved the course from the noble Münsterberg to the rather dingy Clarastrasse, which leads from the city center to the Messeplatz.
Here, art no longer has the dignified, quiet surroundings it had in Basel's good parlors around the cathedral. Here it has to assert itself against the noise of the passing streetcars and the hustle and bustle of the many people. And here there are fewer secluded backyards or rooms to discover, which merge with the objects placed here to form special art locations.
Weiniger does not mean none: There are also places like this in Kleinbasel's old town. For example, in the backyard at Clarastrasse 11, where a small distillery is hidden under a large tree. Mexican artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca has created a system of pipes made of ceramic and steel elements that looks like a pretty, ironic reflection of the distillery system, leading to nowhere.
Corrugated iron hut in the Tropical Zone store
A successful interplay between art and surroundings can also be seen in the Tropical Zone store. Caribbean-born artist Alvaro Barrington has installed a corrugated iron hut in the middle of the store and integrated it as a sales stand for vegetables that are actually on sale.
Other works and installations, such as "Sweets for my Sweets part II" by Pol Taburet, are certainly impressive. However, the installation and the pictures make no reference to the surroundings in the empty store at Clarastrasse 22, but appear to be placed in an art gallery.
The Art Parcours is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is accessible free of charge. On Wednesday, the Parcours Night takes place until 11.00 pm with live performances and other acts.
©Keystone/SDA
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