Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It’s not every day that customs officials pull someone over and find several Pablo Picasso sketches in a bag.
A “traveller” whose details are not being shared by customs was pulled out of the “nothing to declare” line at Zurich Airport and asked to open a bag. There sat 14 sketches, made during May and June 1971 by Picasso.
Title: art lecture series
Location: Geneva, Musée d’art et d’histoire
Description: A series of Lectures in English on Thursdays beginning October 30: “The Seductive Appeal of Fashion Photography.” The first speaker will be William Ewing, Director of the Musée d’Elysée in Lausanne who will talk about Edward Steichen and the origins of Fashion Photography.
Start Time: 12:30
Date: 30 Oct 2008
Lausanne, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) – Ecal (University of Art and Design of Lausanne) has begun its new master’s degree, a one-year programme in luxury design that aims to fill a gap in the design world, with a focus on sustainable development and new technologies as part of design work at the highest level.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world’s top modern and contemporary art fair opens in Basel today, where it is likely to pull in 55,000 people, as it did in 2007.
Photo: Pedro Barateiro, Aerial View (Psycogeography Maps) 3, 2006, courtesy Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon, Portugal.
Art Basel is primarily an art market, with 300 galleries represented and works on sale from more than 2,000 artists from around the world. This year’s market, according to Le Temps, which carries a review in French of the show, was off to an odd start, as if something were missing. Indeed, the Knie circus was missing as the doors opened: it normally sets up camp across the street from the market, which also always offers a good deal of showmanship.
This year Basel Art has been affected by the Euro2008 football championship which begins 7 June, just as the art show ends. The art show was moved up to avoid having the two major events running at the same time, ostensibly to avoid a shortage of hotel rooms. Le Temps points out that the two crowds are probably not a natural mix and this may have also been a factor in the date change.
Photo: Qiu Xiaofei, Bathroom, 2007, courtesy Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing
Le Temps writer Laurent Wolf wanders around the halls and points out that Basel Art offers an extraordinary mix of beautiful, kitsch, disturbing and more. It’s a place where art and money come together and cultures can clash, writes Laurent Wolf, and anything and everything goes.
Art Basel sells tickets online, CHF35-85, or they can be purchased at the door. Opening hours, Wed-Sun, 4-7 June 2008, 11:00-19:00. The market offers free babysitting and art activities, plus food and drink for children aged 3-13 whose parents are attending the fair. Details
