What to expect at photo basel

Dynamic, enthusiastic, attentive, Sven Eisenhut, from Basel, has brought the world of fine art photography to his native city since 2015. Soon, the spotlight will be in its 8th edition and Hub sat down with Sven to get an insight into the topics that will be featured. «We always try to welcome ‘young’ galleries to work alongside the historical ones - begins Eisenhut - Swiss and national galleries, united by an ideal common thread that combines a high level of quality, bold and contemporary programs and a respect for tradition. What we saw in the last edition and what we anticipate now is the comeback of ‘beauty’ in the focus of many artists: we will have more color and nature in general. Last September there were great floral compositions by artists such as Luzia Simons, exhibited by Fabian & Claude Walter gallery in Zurich, or Kathrin Linkersdorff and her Fairies series, for Galerie Springer Berlin. All works were well received by the public. This year, I would say that if we wanted to identify a trend, we could talk about the return of a great classic: the floral theme».

A classic reinforced and revived, perhaps, due to the two pandemic years lived much more domestically. «In this regard, we will see on display the wonderful multicolored prints of Margriet Smulders, for the Contour Gallery in Rotterdam. I’m pleased to think we can sense a comforting celebration of nature. We needed it. A celebration of the earth that revives and of the nature that rescues. Another highlight is the ‘memory factor’: the rediscovery of some neglected ones such as the Swiss artist Roger Humbert, born in 1929, pioneer of konkrete Fotografie, who concentrated on the mysterious qualities of light. His works will be seen alongside those of Italian artist Gianfranco Chiavacci. The third trend concerns the growing interest in those who stage Africa with all its many facets. The African continent has long been overlooked or not fully discovered by the art world. At photo basel, we are privileged to present the CAP Prize, Contemporary African Photography, and to host ARTCO gallery operating between Aachen, Berlin and Cape Town, a gallery that specializes in artists from the African continent.

Still for this trend, an Australian gallery will be represented for the first time, the Mars Gallery of Melbourne, which will dedicate its stand to the South Sudanese artist Atong Atem». The team assembled around Sven Eisenhut is distinguished by a serious knowledge and fresh minds: next to him as artistic director is Sonia Voss, independent curator, she is very active between France and Germany, with a genuine natural instinct to reveal emerging talents. The zest of the group has enabled two interesting experiments in the pandemic years. «In 2020, the first fully virtual photographic art fair was organized and attracted more than twenty thousand visitors», recalls Eisenhut. Thus began the collaboration with the Berlin start-up Kunstmatrix for the digital presentation of photographs, through an augmented reality app. In 2021, it was the turn of photo basel/berlin at Tempelhof Airport, in synergy with POSITIONS Art Fair Berlin». Two intuitions that have made it possible to maintain a high level of attention from collectors, exhibitors and the global press. After all, internationalism is one of the key factors of Basel. At this year’s photo basel 2022 (June 14 to 19) there will be forty exhibitors representing eighteen countries. It is fascinating to observe how, alongside the market of collectors of unique, historical, exclusive pieces who make an investment in the world of art, there is an attempt to develop a more «pop» market of people who are convinced of the importance of photography as an «object of pleasure».