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In Basel art does not stay confined to museums or institutions—it flows through streets, homes, and everyday life, becoming inseparable from the city itself.
Commissioned by Basel Tourism, the volume ABC Basel is an invitation to explore Basel’s living constellation of cultural spaces, to experience their interconnectedness, and to discover how art here continues to care for—and be cared for by—the city and its people.
Structured as a syllabary, it allows readers to explore twelve key institutions through the pairing of a word with a place, or a concept with an institution, revealing how art quietly yet insistently inhabits the city. Samuel Leuenberger, co-curator of the project with Mousse, carefully selected these twelve words to capture the essence and defining characteristics of each institution. Every space was invited to present itself through a variety of formats, allowing it to tell its story in its own voice.
The volume is further enriched by three in-depth conversations between Samuel Leuenberger and Sam Keller, Director of Fondation Beyeler; Roland Wetzel, Director of Museum Tinguely; and Raphael Suter, Director of Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G, as well as contributions from Elena Filipovic, Director of Kunstmuseum Basel, and Ines Goldbach, Director of Kunsthalle Basel, to name just a few, and a photographic essay by Matthieu Croizier’s.
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Basel: More than a City of Museums
by Samuel Leuenberger
Basel’s cultural fabric unfolds like a river—layered, fluid, everrenewing—fed by centuries of artistic devotion and civic imagination. More than a city of museums and galleries, Basel is a constellation of cultural spaces in constant and active conversations with one another, forming a living organism of thought, vision, and care. There are nearly forty museums here, as well as dozens of project spaces, foundations, and artist-run initiatives. Art academies hum alongside archives and experimental labs. But this book does not offer a directory of everything. Instead, it traces the rhythms of a specific current—one shaped by public trust, institutional care, and the noncommercial guardianship of culture.
The twelve highlighted places in these pages were chosen not to exclude the many vital galleries, collections, and fairs that power Basel’s global art stature, but to focus on a quieter architecture: the civic, the collective, the generously funded, the open to all. This ecosystem moves within the horizon of systemic problems—economic, ecological, social—that we are all aware of and that are deeply present in the programs of these institutions. Art spaces do not offer solutions. Yet they expand the civic ground on which contradictions can be made visible, and where complexity can be engaged through embodied experience, critical reflection, and shared presence. They allow for conflict to be rendered, not solved, through gestures, through material, through proximity.
And yet beyond even this civic function, beyond the policy and support structures, what sets Basel apart is something less easily measured, namely a sense of kinship, of institutions and individuals drawn together by an invisible thread of mutual curiosity and shared belief in the transformative power of art.
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This book takes the form of a special alphabet—a syllabary— where each letter is a prompt, and each entry a space, an approach, a commitment. It does not claim completeness. Instead, it invites orientation, a way to move through Basel’s cultural landscape with curiosity, with reverence, and with the awareness that these spaces—noncommercial, non-instrumental—are acts of shared imagination.
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KUNSTHALLE BASEL STEINENBERG 7 CH-4051 BASEL
Kunsthalle Basel is recognized for its commitment to contemporary and experimental art, embracing diverse artistic voices and fostering inclusivity in its programming. It supports international artists while remaining deeply embedded in local dialogue. As pioneers not only in Basel but also across Switzerland and internationally, Kunsthalle Basel is a place of discovery, where current trends and visions take physical form and are given the opportunity to evolve.
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VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM CHARLES-EAMES-STRASSE 2 D-79576 WEIL AM RHEIN
The idea of Building is embodied by the Vitra Design Museum, located just across the border in Weil am Rhein. A landmark of architectural innovation, it explores how design shapes our world, linking design history with future-oriented thinking through its exhibitions.
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AUSSTELLUNGSRAUM KLINGENTAL KASERNENSTRASSE 23 CH-4058 BASEL
The spirit of Community finds expression in Ausstellungsraum Klingental, a long-standing artist-run initiative and a cornerstone of Basel’s independent scene since the mid 1970s. As a self-organized space, it prioritizes grassroots collaboration, offering room for experimental practices and participatory programming, with a large board of artists and curators cosharing their vision.
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KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL ST. ALBAN-GRABEN 16 CH-4010 BASEL
Kunstmuseum Basel, as the world’s oldest public art collection, fosters cross-temporal conversations, offering a rich field for historical and modern engagement. With three impressive buildings in the heart of the city, the museum attracts visitors from all walks of life. Its collections span Old Master paintings, a monumental print department, modern art holdings, and temporary exhibitions of mid and late-career artists. It is a cultural anchor and a place for reflection.
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HEK (HOUSE OF ELECTRONIC ARTS) FREILAGER-PLATZ 9 CH-4142 MÜNCHENSTEIN/BASEL
HEK (House of Electronic Arts) is focused on digital culture, it supports artists working at the intersection of technology and society, challenging traditional media and encourages cross-disciplinary approaches. It is the place to discover new media in all forms and shapes—from sound to animation, video to kinetic art. HEK continuously expands the very definition of what art can be and how it is formulated.
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FONDATION BEYELER BASELSTRASSE 101 CH-4125 RIEHEN/BASEL
Fondation Beyeler presents modern and contemporary art with an emphasis on quality, hospitality, and personal experiences with outstanding art. The museum is known for merging nature, architecture, music, and the arts in a serene setting on the edge of the city. Its exhibitions are internationally renowned, and its gardens, events, and publications deepen the experience of art as something to be lived.
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MUSEUM TINGUELY PAUL SACHER-ANLAGE 1 CH-4058 BASEL
The Museum Tinguely honors the kinetic innovations of Jean Tinguely, drawing connections between the historical avant-garde and contemporary practice through dynamic exhibitions that integrate performance, sculpture, and machinery. This museum represents the singular commitment of Basel’s healthcare company Roche to a single artist. It remains a continuous opportunity for new dialogues and critical rereadings.
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KUNSTHAUS BASELLAND HELSINKI-STRASSE 5 CH-4142 MÜNCHENSTEIN/BASEL
Since relocating from its former site near the stadium to Dreispitz, Kunsthaus Baselland now offers an open and accessible space for contemporary art, welcoming diverse audiences and fostering exhibitions that encourage discovery and inclusivity.
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SALTS HAUPTSTRASSE 12 CH-4127 BIRSFELDEN/BASEL
With a bold, adaptable programming ethos, SALTS champions emerging artists, frequently commissioning site-specific works that respond to its distinctive environment. Over the years, it has served as a springboard for Swiss artists ahead of their international breakthroughs and offered foreign artists a first platform to present their work in Switzerland. Beyond its exhibition program, SALTS offers a model for young curatorial and artistic practices, demonstrating how agility, local rootedness, and experimentation can together shape a sustainable and forward-looking institutional vision.
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KULTURSTIFTUNG BASEL H. GEIGER | KBH.G SPITALSTRASSE 18 CH-4056 BASEL
Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G is a private foundation dedicated to expanding the ways art can be shared, seen, and experienced. With free admission, free publications, and a program that favors experimental, interdisciplinary, and socially relevant projects, KBH.G invites broad publics into a space of curiosity without barriers. Its exhibitions often bypass institutional conventions, embracing the unexpected and the unclassifiable, and creating a platform where artistic ideas flourish outside normative frameworks.
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KUNSTKREDIT BASEL-STADT MÜNZGASSE 16 CH-4001 BASEL
Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt is Switzerland’s oldest municipal arts council. Through its funding programs and public commissions, it sustains thE region’s vibrant artistic community and has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to supporting creative practices. Investing in the arts for more than a century, it takes responsibility for nurturing public artworks, offering stipends to emerging artists, financing international projects, and regularly acquiring works for a publicly visible collection that lives in schools, city halls, and public spaces.
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INSTITUTE ART GENDER NATURE BASEL ACADEMY OF ART AND DESIGN FHNW CAMPUS DREISPITZ FREILAGER-PLATZ 1 CH-4142 MÜNCHENSTEIN/BASEL
The theme of Vision is embodied by the Institute Art Gender Nature and its exhibition space der TANK. Situated within the Academy of Art and Design, the institute integrates ecological thinking, gender studies, and transdisciplinary exchange through research-based artistic practices. Engaging with feminist, decolonial, and intersectional frameworks, the institution has developed a curriculum unique within art education that resonates globally. The school and exhibition space have grown from a smaller regional academy into a powerful competitor to major art schools in Zurich, Geneva, and Lausanne. Its pedagogical model merges theory with practice in urgent, socially transformative ways.
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