Basel Social Club moves from factory to farm

Basel Social Club (BSC) sprang up in 2022 during Art Basel and quickly captured attention as a word-of-mouth alternative to the more exclusive art fairs and gallery dinners in town. Its first iteration combined 36 galleries in an abandoned 1930s villa in Bruderholz with a focus as much on gastronomy and partying as the art on show — visitors took advantage of its bijoux swimming pool. In 2023, more than 100 exhibitors piled into a former mayonnaise factory, which doubled as a pumping nightclub.

This year, co-founders Robbie Fitzpatrick, a gallerist, the artist Hannah Weinberger and Yael Salomonowitz of Vienna’s The Performance Agency have gone full festival and are hosting BSC in 50 hectares of Bruderholz farmland.

The latest venue puts new demands on exhibitors, particularly as Basel’s weather can be extreme (sun and storms) in June. Zurich gallerist Fabian Lang returns with a three-metre-high outdoor sculpture by Kilian Rüthemann made from reflective polyester filled with sand (priced around SFr30,000). “It’s an opportunity to rattle the cage a bit and show people that there’s more than just paintings on walls,” Lang says.

Other art includes films in the woods (electricity has been secured), ceramic dinnerware at its fine-dining concession and a “diverse music and performance programme”, Fitzpatrick says.

He insists that Basel Social Club is not an art fair. While the model is much the same — galleries pay to show work that is for sale — BSC is free to visit, is run as a non-profit and has a disorganised feel, extending to not finalising exhibitors less than two weeks before opening.

Such a freewheeling spirit points to the secret of its success. “The commercial market has become too predictable, I can tell you in advance what is in every art fair,” says art adviser Janna Lang, who took two clients to BSC last year. “Plus, collectors like the idea that they are not being overtly sold to.” Fabian Lang notes that it is a relative pleasure for the exhibitors too: “There’s this amazing energy and excitement in the air.”

The event may not be alternative for long. The founders of several new fairs, ranging from Esther in New York to Supper Club in Hong Kong, all cite BSC as an inspiration. Janna Lang says: “It’s relaxed, it’s a mix and with a sense that everything’s possible. I would love to see more of this.”

June 9-16, baselsocialclub.com