photo basel special projects & in situ initiatives
With strong personal and professional ties to the hosting city, photo basel is proud to be able to give back to this wonderful Swiss town. With our special projects and in situ initiatives, we would like to express our gratitude towards the region and local community, offering a photography-centered program that invites an even broader audience (free of charge) throughout the year.
in situ with Roger Humbert @ Bellevue Basel (fall 2020)
Photography is a special form of the so called «technical intelligence».As a technical invention, it contributes to the advancement of social development:
It has made things visible that were previously inaccessible to the human eye, and at the same time has changed human perception forever. In his work, Roger Humbert has always devoted himself to the technical intelligence of the photography prescribed. He is known and famous for his wonderful photograms and experimental photographs that focus on light as such and make it the source of the design.
But in addition to that, over decades of traveling and everyday life, he also made camera photographs, which will now be shown for the first time in a representative selection. Roger Humbert invites us on a world tour, takes us to France and Italy, to North Africa and also China. In this exhibition his oeuvre can be discovered and with it a special world of light and the reality of things.
This special exhibition is made in cooperation with the Fotostiftung Schweiz and Bellevue Basel.
Roger Humbert (1929) is represented by the Galerie Fabian & Claude Walter, Zürich, Switzerland
in situ during photo basel June 2019
During the fifth anniversary edition of photo basel art fair (June 2019), the home of private collector Dr. Felix Ackermann will turn once again into a heaven for photography aficionados.
This year, the i.collection (1987-2008) assembled by Isabelle Mège and presented by the French gallery Baudoin Lebon (Paris) and La Chapelle de Clairefontaine, 60 prints will be on display in Basel.
The collection of Isabelle Mège consists of 110 photographs taken by 80 photographers, being simultaneously creator, model and collector. Isabelle Mège began with this personal project in 1986, at only 20 years old, after she had encountered the work of Jeanloup Sieff, shown at the Museum of Modern Art at the time. It all started to take shape in her mind thereafter. She documented herself methodically and visited countless exhibitions in her search for the right photographers to carry out her project as she envisioned it.
Isabelle Mège’s approach is one of self-empowerment rather than narcissism, exercising control over her image at every stage. She presents different aspects of herself throughout the years and in each photograph: various settings and poses, but always her utmost intimate self. For almost 20 years, Isabelle Mège has been in contact with photographers, at times rejecting some as inadequate to her project and at other times getting politely declined by them. The resulting collection of images is proof for the necessity to leave a mark and to build a body of work over time in something that we would call today a performance. In front of the camera, er facial features and visage, her body and silhouette are always interpreted differently by the 80 photographers. The relationship that Isabelle Mège built and maintained with each photographer is one of curiosity and fascination, almost idolization in some respect. In her diary, she described it as if it were teenage romantic encounters: “He calls me, I am moved, surprised, ebriated”.
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 6th, from 6 to 8pm @ Heuberg 24 in 4051 Basel (map)
Opening Hours: Monday through Friday (June 10-14) from 3 to 7pm
free public guided tour Thursday, June 13th at 2pm
Saturday (June 15) from 11am to 4pm
in situ initiative fall 2018
Under the patronage of photo basel and with the support of the Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie (Zürich) and Galerie Esther Woerdehoff (Paris), photo basel in situ will present two Swiss artists, Balthasar Burkhard and Karlheinz Weinberger, in exhibition at Heuberg 24, Raum für Kunst starting on October 18th, 2018.
Free public vernissage; Thursday, October 18th from 6pm-8pm
Guided tour with the gallerists on Saturday, October 20th from 3pm-4pm
Finissage: Saturday, October 27th, 2018
Location: Heuberg 24, Raum für Kunst, Heuberg 24, 4051 Basel (map)
more information here
in situ initiative June 2018
On Wednesday, June 13th, and Friday, June 15th (2018), from 2h30pm until 5pm, the artist Cynthia Fleischmann (*1987) will perform live at the Biergarten/Volkshaus.
In collaboration with °CLAIRbyKahn Gallery, photo basel in situ has the pleasure to present a special exhibition on the work of Erich Hartmann (1922-1999), a Magnum photographer renowned for his major photography projects such as In the Camps and Our Daily Bread, at heuberg24 in downtown Basel - open and free to the public on Friday,June 15th from 14h-16h and Saturday, June 16th from 10am-12pm.
During photo basel week (2018), the eyewear store VIU turns into a pop-up gallery for the artist Joschi Herczeg (*1975) - represented by Galerie Monika Wertheimer. Open on weekdays from 10am-9pm.