Art Basel in Basel 2023

Art Basel’s flagship fair welcomed 82,000 art lovers to explore some of the best in contemporary art today, from over 280 leading galleries from 36 countries and territories. UBS was proud to join the fair as Global Lead Partner with a program that expanded beyond the fairgrounds.

In the UBS Art Studio, visitors explored a recent acquisition from the UBS Art Collection by the Kosovan artist Petrit Halilaj, 'Very volcanic over this green feather (blue bird),' (2021). The work is part of a larger installation that revisits felt-tip drawings he made as a child in the Albanian Kukës II refugee camp during the Kosovo War. Fusing challenging scenes that he witnessed with birds and fantastical visions, it delivers a powerful meditation on hope and personal memory. The booth also offered creative workshops designed together with Halilaj, actively engaging fairgoers by coloring and decorating cut-out paper objects based on the artist’s childhood drawings.

The UBS Art Collection presentation in the UBS Lounge explored the theme of ‘Reimagining: New Perspectives’ with a selection of artworks from the Collection. The works have been recently acquired, and many are also highlighted in the Collection’s latest publication 'Reimagining New Perspectives'.

During the fair, the UBS Art Collection hosted a public panel titled 'A Body of Work: Artists at the intersection of shaping, claiming and reimagining worldviews'. Writer, critic and curator Enuma Okoro spoke with Alicja Kwade, Xaviera Simmons and Sandra Mujinga about their multifaceted artistic practices, and themes surrounding the body, identity and representation in times of crisis and opportunity. Watch the replay hereabout A Body of Work.

Across the city spanned Parcours, Art Basel's Public sector, an art-filled journey of 24 site-specific installations - its largest edition to date. As part of this program, the UBS branch Aeschenvorstadt hosted an immersive installation by artist Melike Kara, mixing paintings and a series of photographic prints from her personal archive. The piece offered visitors a chance to learn more about Kurdish culture and identity and explore notions of home.

Other Parcours highlights included Julian Charrière’s new drone film ‘Controlled Burn’ (2022), which took viewers on a tour of coal mines and rusting powerplants, and Laure Prouvost’s new video work ‘No More Front Tears’ (2022), which explored notions of migrations by humans, as well as animals and plants.

On the city’s Messeplatz, visitors engaged with an interactive installation by Latifa Echakhch, whose work is included in the UBS Art Collection presentation in the UBS Lounge. She represented Switzerland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 and has a long tradition of working with deconstructed stages. Her sprawling superstructure provided the setting for a series of live concerts and performances organized in collaboration with Luc Meier, Director of La Becque Artist Residency.