From June 19 to 22, 2025, Basel once again becomes the international epicenter of contemporary art with the most ambitious edition to date of Art Basel. Featuring 289 galleries from 42 countries and territories, the Swiss fair will bring together works ranging from early Modern pioneers to the most innovative voices of the contemporary scene, spanning media such as painting, sculpture, photography, digital art, large-scale installations, and performances.
Katharina Grosse at Messeplatz: Art as Urban Disruption
One of the most anticipated interventions will take place outside Messe Basel. German artist Katharina Grosse will transform the Messeplatz and surrounding structures into a vivid, chromatic, and shifting environment through her signature large-scale spray painting technique. Curated by Natalia Grabowska (Serpentine, London), the project proposes an immersive experience that unsettles the familiar and dissolves the boundaries between body, space, and architecture. Color becomes anarchic, Grosse declares, it can appear everywhere and turn reality into something entirely liquid.
Katharina Grosse, CHOIR, 2025. Messeplatz Project, Art Basel. Courtesy of the artist © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025. Photography by Jens Ziehe.
Unlimited: Politics, Poetry, and Monumentality
The Unlimited section, curated by Giovanni Carmine, will present 67 large-scale works ranging from monumental installations to expansive video projections. Highlights include Caroline Achaintre‘s textile piece Gobbler, Thomas Bayrle‘s functional “superforms” installed at the Manor department store, and the Cairo-based collective nasa4nasa with a performance inspired by the traditional candelabrum dance. Historic works such as Félix Gonzélez-Torres‘ Untitled (Go-Go Dancing Platform) (1991) will be featured alongside new pieces by Andrea Büttner, Cosima von Bonin, and Mira Schor. On Thursday, June 19, the fair will host Unlimited Night, with extended hours and a special performance program.
Félix González-Torres. Hauser & Wirth. Courtesy of Art Basel.
Parcours: Public Art and Altered Nature
Titled Second Nature, the Parcours section —curated by Stefanie Hessler— returns with more than 20 site-specific interventions stretching from Clarastrasse to the Rhine. Works explore the increasingly blurred lines between nature and artifice. Notable contributions include Yu Ji‘s bread-activated sculptures at the Rheinfelderhof Hotel, Selma Selman‘s sound and scent installation inside St. Clara Church, and Hylozoic/Desires‘ monumental textile piece namak halal / namak haram (2025), which reinterprets a British colonial customs line using naturally dyed fabrics. Parcours becomes a sensorial and political route connecting institutions, history, and everyday life.
Yu Ji. Sadie Coles HQ. Installation view Yu Ji, Flesh in Stone – Ghost No. 9, 2021. Courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London.
Art Basel Awards and Public Program
The 2025 edition also marks the official launch of the Art Basel Awards, in collaboration with BOSS. On June 20, the Art Basel Awards Summit will be held during the fair — a free, public event gathering some of the most influential voices in contemporary art. A total of 36 medalists, selected by an international jury, will be honored for their innovation, vision, and cultural impact.
Kabinett: The Intimate Within the Booth
The Kabinett section, dedicated to curated thematic presentations within booths, will feature 24 projects. Highlights include Pier Paolo Calzolari‘s salt-infused black paintings (Galleria Franco Noero), Martha Rosler‘s iconic diaper-stitched works, Galerie 1900-2000‘s survey of appropriation art from Duchamp to Sherrie Levine, and presentations by Lucia Nogueira, Alekos Fassianos, and Hu Xiaoyuan.
Beijing Commune presenta el proyecto individual de Hu Xiaoyuan I Am Rooted, But I Flow (2025).
At El Hype, we will closely follow this edition of Art Basel, not merely as a reference fair, but as an expanded, multisensory, and urban experience. Art Basel Basel 2025 promises to be a living laboratory where art is not only contemplated, but interrupts, transforms, and challenges.
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