For its second edition, Maze Design Basel has expanded. This boutique design fair was launched last year by a handful of dealers, most of them Paris-based, following the discontinuation of Design Miami Basel. It takes place in an unusual setting, the Offene Kirche Elisabethen, a church in the city centre a stone’s throw from Basel’s museums and the Kunsthalle. This year, several new exhibitors have joined the fair in a tent erected in front of the building.
The event has also grown through the presence of more works on the walls, giving it an “art-and-design” spirit that Design Miami Basel did not have. “All the exhibitors now have the opportunity to show some art on their booths,” says Hélin Serre of Laffanour—Galerie Downtown, Paris.
The gallery is presenting paintings of Black male figures by the German artist Jeremy Jaspers, a sculptural work by Joana Vasconcelos and a large-format, text-based canvas on dreams by the American artist Ken Grimes. The centrepiece of the stand is an Ours Polaire sofa by Jean Royère, reupholstered in its original deep green fabric and priced at more than €1m, alongside a Mexique bookcase by Charlotte Perriand that long formed part of gallery owner François Laffanour’s personal collection. On Sunday, during the “soft opening”, which was attended by contemporary art dealers exhibiting at Art Basel and their clients, “we mainly saw Europeans and Americans, represented by their advisers”, Serre says.
New York gallery Salon 94 Design won the Maze/Art Awards F.P. Journe, presented as part of Maze Design Basel. The winning work was a seat combining bamboo and silk by the Indian architect Bijoy Jain, with Studio Mumbai. Thanks to the prize, the piece, priced at around €20,000, will enter the collection of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, just a short distance from Basel on the German side.
• Maze Design Basel, Offene Kirche Elisabethen, until 18 June