Second Nature: How Parcours Rewires Art Basel
As Art Basel returns to its namesake city for its 55th edition, the fair once again reminds us why June in Switzerland feels like the epicenter of contemporary culture. Directed by Maike Cruse, the fair will be opening with VIP previews on June 17 and 18, and public viewing days from June 19 through 22. With 289 galleries from over 40 countries, the programming is as ambitious as ever — but it’s Parcours, curated by Stefanie Hessler, that truly reshapes the city’s rhythm.
Now in her second year curating Parcours, Hessler threads site-specific works through Basel’s daily life — placing sculpture, sound, and video installations into storefronts, department stores, churches, courtyards, and along the Rhine. This year’s theme, Second Nature, explores how repeated behaviors, rituals, and human interventions blur the line between what is natural and what is constructed. “It’s about the behaviors we stop questioning,” Hessler says, “and how those behaviors shape the way we live.”
The result is a route of quiet disorientation and thoughtful tension. At the Rheinfelderhof Hotel, Yu Ji’s wax and coral sculptures are activated with fresh bread, baked daily by a local bakery. In the Merian underpass, a haunting video by Sturtevant shows a dog frantically circling every nine seconds, an echo of our digital loops and image saturation. Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser installed an 80-meter textile wall dyed with plants that once marked a colonial salt barrier. Nearby, Thomas Bayrle revives a 1960s installation: a functioning raincoat shop inside the Manor department store, where 800 limited-edition coats are on sale.
As the art world converges once again in Basel, Parcours presents a model for how public space and contemporary art can coexist, not as a spectacle, but as a conversation. The most lasting works often meet us where we least expect them.
