Basel

The city’s Messeplatz will feature a site-specific presentation by Moroccan, Swiss-based artist Latifa Echakhch, curated by Samuel Leuenberger, Curator for Parcours at Art Basel. Echakhch, who represented Switzerland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, has a long tradition of working with deconstructed stages – the symbol of wreckage and ruins – to uncover the hopes and possibilities contained within. 

A sprawling superstructure situated in the Messeplatz will be the backdrop for a series of live concerts and performances organized in collaboration with Luc Meier, Director of La Becque Artist Residency. The musical acts interrogate the fundamentals of sound and music-making as a shared experience between the artist and the audience. 

Beyond the performances, the various islands and stage settings will be available for the public to sing, recite poetry, share knowledge, or simply come to rest.

About Latifa Echakhch
Born in 1974 in El Khnansa (Morocco), Latifa Echakhch lives and works between Vevey and Martigny (Switzerland). Driven by the necessity to counter certain prejudices, contradictions, and stereotypes in our society, she isolates and questions materials that are symbolic for these phenomena. In 2007, Echakhch presented ‘A chaque stencil une révolution’ at Le Magasin, Grenoble, as part of her first solo museum exhibition. Latifa Echakhch's work has since been presented in France and abroad in numerous solo exhibitions: at Kunsthaus in Zurich, Switzerland; the Centre Pompidou in Paris; the macLYON in Lyon; the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; MACBA in Barcelona; Swiss Institute in New York; Tate Modern in London; KIOSK in Ghent, Belgium; the New National Museum of Monaco; Contemporary Copenhagen, Denmark; the Memmo Foundation in Rome, Italy; Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany; BPS22, in Charleroi, Belgium; as well as group exhibitions and as part of the Istanbul Biennial, the 54th Venice Biennale, the 11th Sharjah Biennial, the Jerusalem Art Focus Biennial, and the Manifesta 7 in Bolzano. Echakhch won the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2013.She represented Switzerland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. Latifa Echakhch is represented by Pace Gallery, kaufmann repetto, and Dvir Gallery.