Liste Art Fair Basel 2023 Looks at the Importance of Perspective

Messe Basel’s Hall 1.1 welcomes the return of Liste Art Fair, focused on showcasing emerging, international artists. The fair will be open in person from June 12–18, and viewable online as Liste Showtime until June 25. This year, a circular layout conceived by the Belgian design firm OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severin i.c.w. Richard Venlet will welcome over 100 artists, presented by 88 galleries from 35 different countries.

“With Liste Art Fair Basel 2023, we’re noticing a sharply observant generation of artists who are increasingly using time-based media such as video, sound, scent and performance to make socio-political statements. Art is becoming more political again,” said the fair’s Director, Joanna Kamm. “For the past few years, artists seemed to have taken inward-looking gazes as their starting points, but this year we’re seeing a reversal to outward-facing gazes.”

With this realization, the fair has embraced a thematic statement: “My gaze, your gaze: the importance of positionality.” Under this theme, it focuses on works that take on the perspective of topics, groups, and demographics that are owed more attention, from the feminist gaze to ideas around sustainability and cosmology. For example, Tora Schultz’s presentation with palace enterprise states how crash test dummies for cars are always modeled after the male form and poses a female version, while Bel Ami’s show of Guillaume Dénervaud looks at the destruction of the earth through science-fiction fantasies.

Other presentations of note include those by newcomers Blue Velvet Projects, E.A. Shared Space, Regards, and PHD Group, and returning galleries like Tant Yunshu Zhong with Tabula Rasa, Ciaccia Levi presenting Amber Andrews, Merikokeb Berhanu with Addis Fine Art, and Lodos presenting work by Mina Squalli-Houssaïni.

Liste’s 2023 edition has been conceived to be as sustainable as possible in accordance with the Gallery Climate Coalition, of which the fair is a member. These efforts extend into its programming, like the exhibition “Whistlers,” which was curated by Sarah Johanna Theurer and presented with support from Kulturstiftun Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G and Samsung. Featuring artists and collectives including Tomoko Sauvage, Holy Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, Geocinema, Invernomuto, and Davi Pontes with Wallace Ferreira, the show’s premise looks at ideas of sustainability and resilience in relation to the titular concept—naturally-occurring, low-frequency waves that cannot be detected by humans.