 Highlights of Art Basel in Switzerland are in this column. You may also be interested in highlights from Art Basel Miami Beach. Mark Dahle's tips for visiting Art Basel If you like modern and contemporary art, you should go to Art Basel in Switzerland. You'll see almost every artist represented, from Picasso to the top living artists. If you're not up on contemporary trends, this would be a great place to get an introduction to the current art scene, in all its forms. The 2012 edition runs June 13-17. Bring comfortable walking shoes -- you'll have lots of ground to cover.
Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011. Arriving by air. Basel has an airport with easy bus and train connections to town. Automated ticket machines for both bus and train are outside the airport. Both bus and train will take you to Basel SBB, the main train station, which is a hub for local transportation. There's also direct train service to Basel SBB from the Zurich airport. Checking in. Stop at the Art Basel booth just outside the Basel SBB station and buy a two-day pass to Art Basel. The staff will be able to show you on a map where to find Art Basel, your hotel, and a couple satellite fairs -- enough to get you started. The staff speak fluent English (and German and French). Local transportation. Your hotel will give you a transportation pass good for buses and trams, and travel around Basel will be easy with it. You’ll probably need two maps, one showing the tram system and one with more detail showing the streets. But there’s no need to buy a city map; maps are freely available almost everywhere.
Frank Stella Protractor Variation X, 1963, at Art Basel 2011. Hotels. The earlier you book, the better your choices will be. But in 2011 it was still possible to find a room three days before the event. A month before the event there were still youth hostels with space. Book as early as you're able for the best selection. Using English. I met only one shopkeeper who didn’t speak English. Everyone else that I met, on the street and in businesses, young and old, were courteous and eager to help me find my way around town. You should have no trouble getting around even if English is your only language.
Florian Slatawa, Garden Tools (6) at Art Basel 2011. When to go. If you’re able, go early in the week. The crowds are much bigger on Saturday and Sunday and make seeing the art more difficult. But if those are your only possible days, by all means go on the weekend. Food. Food is available at the event. At peak times you might spend 15 minutes in line. A small bottle of water can cost six Euros, but it's worth staying at the site to maximize your time. Media. The first floor has a section of art magazines. Be sure to pick up the free daily edition of The Art Newspaper. The paper will print two or three editions during Art Basel, and you can get interesting market news about the art you've seen that day. If you want to keep up on art events around the world, this is the best publication to subscribe to. If you only have a day. You’re going to miss great art, no doubt about it. But to make the best use of your time, stick to the ground floor of Art Basel. You’ll see hundreds of millions of dollars of art, even if you only have an hour. You'll see art by Pablo Picasso, Frank Stella, Christo, Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, and other names you'll recognize. In 2011 art that caught my eye included George Condo's Field of Figures, which sold for $450,000; Richard Pousette-Dart's Bridge Horizon, 1950; and Takashi Naraha's sculpture Mandala-Wall N86.
Takashi Naraha's Mandala-Wall N86, 1990 at Art Basel 2011. If you have enough time, take a side trip to Hall 1, where you’ll see something different that will make it worth your trip. Highlights in 2011 included Etienne Chambaud's The Encored Separation and Petrit Halilaj's Kosterrc. There are many great galleries and artists represented on the second floor. But if you don't have time, you don't have time. Work in 2011 that caught my eye included Sirous Namazi's Untitled (Fence), Anish Kapoor's Untitled (stainless steel mirror), Satoko Nachi's Untitled/Quartet (a large scale nude), Wang Du's powerful Image gratuite, and paintings by Thoralf Knobloch. If you have two days. Plan on spending the better part of your time at Art Basel. Check out the first and second floor as well as Hall 1. If you’ve seen everything there, check out one of the satellite fairs (Liste, Scope, Volta, and Solo Project), and get a local guide to see if you should visit any of the exhibitions at the local museums. If you like installations, you could check out the projects along the river after you've seen Hall 1. But if installations aren't your number one priority and your time is limited, I'd recommend you go to all the satellite fairs before trudging around the river locations. 
Richard Long, Funfair Circle, 2011, one of my favorites on the second floor of Art Basel 2011. If you can, stay four (or more) days. If you're able, stay four or five days. That will let you see most of the art in the city. Satellite fairs. There are far fewer satellite fairs at Art Basel than at Art Basel Miami Beach. But that doesn’t matter, since Art Basel itself is so much bigger. If you have two days or more and are good at walking, you'll have time to visit one or more satellite fairs. If you want to see all of them, you'll probably need four days. There’s a stock market quote that applies here: The past is no predictor of future events. Still, for what it’s worth, here’s the highlights from 2011: Scope. A great mash-up of architectural design, art, and social experiment, Counterweight Roommate is one installation that will be long remembered by people who spent time with it. The two occupants had to rely on each other for counterbalance if they wanted to move from one floor to the next. Counterweight Roommate was at the entrance of Scope in 2011.
Counterweight Roommate at Scope 2011 Other art at Scope that caught my eye in 2011 included Kris Walking and Jeremy Walking in Coat by Julian Opie, and AB Gallery's great installation of Hassan Sharif's painting of traffic (Bridges) and Hussain Sharif's cars. You could almost hear the honking. Plus a whimsical squirt gun fountain by Christophe Goutel.
Hassan Sharif's Bridges with Hussain Sharif's Cars at Scope 2011. Liste. Liste is advertised as the “young person’s” art fair. It’s kind of shocking how apt the description is. At Art Basel, you’ll find an occasional teen or person in their 20s, often with a parent. But at Liste, you’ll discover where the younger set went instead of Art Basel. The average age of attenders at Art Basel looked to be well above 50. At Liste it was closer to 25 or 30. If you arrive at 8 p.m., the price drops to only six euros, and they’re open late, so you can maximize your time by saving Liste for the end of the day. The art is great, but even if it weren‘t, it’s worth going just to poke around the magnificent building. Liste is at Werkraum Warteck, a fabulous site.
Werkraum Wartech building, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011. Solo. If Solo is at St. Jakobshalle in 2012, catch the shuttle from Art Basel. For sure. Don't try to find it on public transportation. You won’t need more than an hour or two at the exhibit, but it’ll probably be worth the trip. In 2011, highlights included Christopher Corso’s portraits and Yasam Sasmazer’s sculpture. Selection. In Hall 33 of the Contemporary Art Center Basel, a ten minute walk from Art Basel at the corner of Riehentorstrasse and Claragraben. Volta. Take a shuttle bus from Art Basel or Liste. Local museums. There are quite a few local museums; pick up a schedule of their current exhibits and choose what to see based on your time. Of all the 2011 current exhibits, my top pick would be Foundation Beyeler. Foundation Beyeler. Foundation Beyeler currently has a great exhibit of sculptures by Constantin Brancusi and Richard Serra. The exhibit runs through August 21, 2011.
I can't help but think of Mad Magazine's Spy vs. Spy when I see these two sculptures together on the lawn at Foundation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland.
Other pages you might be interested in:
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Overpass, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011.
Grate, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011.
Storage tank, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011.
Metal deck, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011.
Construction zone, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011.
Girder and bolt, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011.
Walkway, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011.
Train trestle, Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011.
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Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011
Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011
Basel, Switzerland. © Mark Dahle 2011
