Installation view of Philippe Parreno, Membrane, 2023, and Fujiko Nakaya, Untitled, 2024, in “Cloud Chronicles” at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, 2024. © Philippe Parreno and Fujiko Nakaya. Photo by Mark Niedermann. Courtesy of the artists.
Summertime in Switzerland means one thing: Basel is getting ready to welcome art lovers from around the world. Art Basel 2024, held from June 13th to16th, has a lot to offer, but so does the rest of town. Beyond Messeplatz, the art fair is a moment to experience art across the city, and is just an hour’s train ride from Zürich, where Zürich Art Weekend takes place June 7th through 9th.
This year, as part of Art Basel’s Parcours section, public art installations curated by the Swiss Institute’s Stefanie Hessler will line Clarastraße along the Rhine, bringing a taste of contemporary art to the outdoors. While there’s plenty in store at the fair itself, there’s more to see in Basel if you venture away from the fair and into the museums and galleries.
Here, we select 10 museum and gallery shows worth wandering away from the fair booths for.
Ebecho Muslimova, “Whispers”
Bernheim, Zürich
June 7—July 26
In the Zürich half of a two-part presentation (the other show, “Rumors” is at Mendes Wood DM in São Paolo), Ebecho Muslimova’s series of paintings portray Fatebe, the artist’s alter ego, in flat, cartoonish lines. This signature character frequently finds herself in contorted, surrealistic situations, visualizing desire as Goya-esque grotesquery amid skyscrapers and modern urban domesticity. In cheerful, irreverent paintings, Muslimova offers a vision of a liberated, playful female body.
