At Art Basel, art is business – at Basel Social Club, it’s a party

Basel Social Club's theme (and venue) in 2025 was "Bank". In the picture, a room set up as a "Jeff Koons Special Sale" with an industrial production of inflatable dogs in the model of the American artist's iconic ready-made. Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

Since 2022, Basel Social Club has offered a free-spirited counterpoint to Art Basel. Rejecting exclusivity and privilege, this initiative by local art professionals reinvents itself every year, transforming unconventional spaces into anarchic open-doors environments where art and fun mingle freely.

Back in 2022, Art Basel was staging its first (almost) unimpeded post-pandemic edition, and people were still cautious about social interaction. Greeting kisses were still avoided, hand sanitiser was ubiquitous, yet a sense of regained freedom hung in the air.

As the art world’s movers and shakers descended on Basel, word began to spread about an open party in an affluent suburb on the outskirts of the city. At the entrance, guests hesitated – no one quite knew who the hosts were or what this open villa was all about. All the rooms were converted either into exhibition spaces, a cocktail bar or a lounge, sometimes all at once.

The dance floor was set by the pool in the garden, but since we were in a wealthy residential area where noise is taboo, partygoers were given headphones. A wild party unfolded in near silence, the sound confined within each participant’s senses.

“It was all very improvised,” recalls Julia Cellarius, one of the organisers of Basel Social Club, speaking during a visit to the still-empty venue of the 2026 edition – a multi-story office building that once housed training facilities for UBS bank and the pharma giant Roche.

Cellarius explains that this group of young local artists, art professionals and curators wanted to create their own space, mixing emerging art with a hedonistic spirit reminiscent of the mid-1990s, when another young group of gallerists and curators launched the LISTE art fair as a fresh counterpoint to Art Basel.

At the time, Art Basel needed a while to recognise LISTE as a valuable complement. Basel Social Club, by contrast, was almost immediately welcomed into its ecosystem.

Basel Social Club collective drew on their local network to organise things, calling friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances. The event took off immediately, quickly becoming the place to go during the scorching Art Basel summer week.

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Basel Social Club year 1, “Villa” (2022): the inaugural edition of Basel Social Club was staged in a 1930s villa where over 50 international artists were presented by 40 exhibitors throughout the interior, the garden, and poolside. Lukas Zitzer

Basel Social Club year 2 (2023), “Factory”: set in the former Thomy mayonnaise factory, this large-scale venue hosted nearly 1,000 artworks, and drew over 30,000 visitors during the week. Basel Social Club

Basel Social Club year 3, “Farm” (2024): an installation by American artist Julia Scher in the meadows. Scher works primarily with themes of surveillance. Gina Folly

Basel Social Club year 4, “Bank” (2025): performance, directed by British artist Anthea Hamilton. Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

Basel Social Club year 4, “Bank” (2025): Model walks performatively by the “Bank” grounds wearing a suit designed in the same model as the sculptures in the back by Mexican artist Laura Anderson Barbata. Lara Esqueda

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Each year, a different rabbit hole

In the years that followed, unconventional spaces became the Basel Social Club’s trademark. In 2023, it took over a dilapidated factory. In 2024 it spread across the Predigerhof park on the city’s edge under the title “Farm”. By its third iteration, the event had begun attracting established artists and galleries, who offered some of their works to be shown alongside emerging artists.

Last year, the club occupied a former private bank in Basel’s old town. The building’s elegance and beauty were remarkable, but you could sense that the magic was getting out of control. Long queues formed outside, and overcrowding was unavoidable.

Basel Social Club, “The Office” (2026): detail of the installation “Ameratherm – Ultra Cooking Lab” (2024) by Californian artist Julia Scher. Simon Vogel

But the hedonism and tongue-in-cheek take on the high-flying art world was still very much alive. A good example was the “Jeff Koons Special Sale”, where three workers dressed in outfits evoking an Asian sweatshop spent the day producing balloon dogs in the style of the American artist – in 2013 one of his dogs sold for $52 million.

For the current edition, organisers addressed the overcrowding issue by securing a huge new venue: a complex where you can wander for hours, exploring room after room, corner after corner.

Basel Social Club now hosts an independent art book fair alongside vernissages, performances, gala dinners and art prizes. Yet some attendees complained that it has become too big, and that mingling with strangers doesn’t have the same openness as in early editions. Others, more critically, point to an amateurish approach regarding the selection of artworks, arguing that it is a mere backdrop for partying.

Still, in the Art Basel universe, defined by “exclusivity”, “prestige”, and “by invitation only”, Basel Social Club remains a very democratic space. Entry is free, food and drinks are plentiful, and the partying and dancing go deep into the night – often until 3am. The organisers readily acknowledge that art and having fun is the club’s raison d’être – and why not?

Edited by Reto Gysi von Wartburg/sb