While Art Basel dominates the landscape, the city is alive with smaller, more intimate fairs dedicated to cutting-edge art, design and photography—well worth the visit once you have had your fill of blue-chip art.
Liste, Burgweg 15, 14-19 June
Known for its focus on emerging art, Liste returns for its 21st edition with 79 exhibitors—34 bringing solo presentations—including first-timers Cairo-based Gypsum Gallery, and The Sunday Painter, from Peckham in south London. Liste’s 12th performance project, Trans-Corporeal Metabolisms, includes performances by Keren Cytter and Alexandra Bachzetsis, while among special projects are interventions organised by the House of Electronic Arts Basel and a children’s books presentation staged in conjunction with Kunsthalle Zürich.
Design Miami/Basel, Hall 1 South, Messe Basel, 14-19 June
Design Miami/Basel has grown its roster with new exhibitors this year, but some of the most talked-about presentations include an exhibition of vintage cars, and a display of jewellery—or “wearable sculptures”—designed by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, at Elisabetta Cipriani’s stand. The fair’s Design at Large section, now in its third year, is guest-curated by Martina Mondadori, the founder and editor-in-chief of Cabana magazine. Drawing on natural landscapes, the section’s offerings will include Jean Prouvé’s Temporary School of Villejuif, which is presented by the dealer and long-time Prouvé collector Patrick Seguin.
Photo Basel, Volkshaus Basel, Rebgasse 12-14, 15-19 June
For its second edition, the most recent arrival on the Basel fair circuit has launched a Focus Series to highlight one photography publisher, one artist and one institution every year. Éditions Xavier Barral, Paris, the German fine art and fashion photographer Juergen Teller and the Zurich University of the Arts are this year’s choices. The US collective Screen Projects will organise an exhibition titled Storyworlds, and all of this will take place in a new venue, the Volkshaus Basel.
Volta12, Markthalle, Viaduktstrasse 10, 14-18 June
Seven new exhibitors are taking part in the 12th Basel edition of Volta, as well as an increasingly loyal coterie of regulars. The fair’s organisers say they have hit their highest retention rates yet—90% of its exhibitors have taken part in a previous iteration, either in Basel or New York. Among the highlights of this year’s edition is a site-specific wall painting by the Dutch artist Jan van der Ploeg, who is also having his first solo exhibition in Switzerland, at the Kunsthaus Baselland.
Scope Basel, Clarahuus, Webergasse 34, 15-19 June
As Scope Basel celebrates its tenth anniversary, it is counting on higher visitor numbers now that it has moved to a new location, just three blocks away from Art Basel. The fair has 85 regular exhibitors and another ten that are part of the 16th edition of the Breeder Program, which specialises in introducing new galleries to the market.
Other satellite fairs include:
• The Solo Project, Dreispitzhalle, Helsinki Strasse 5, 14-18 June
• Rhy Art Fair, Saalbau Rhypark, Muelhauserstrasse 17, 16-19 June