Art Basel Diary: Carnival, Algorithms, and Phantom Pregnancies

The Art Basel diary highlights several notable installations and performances across Basel's art fairs. At the Volta fair, Perve Galeria presents 'Flowing Upstream' by German artist Martin Wöllenstein, an installation made from discarded costumes from Ghana's Ankos Masquerade carnival. The work reverses textile waste flows by transporting costumes from Ghana to Basel via the Rhine. In Art Basel's Zero 10 digital section, artist William Mapan's 'Paysages Plausibles: Dances on Shadows' features a live algorithm that generates unique compositions as visitors interact, emphasizing unpredictability. At the Liste fair, Los Angeles-based artist Erin Calla Watson's video 'Maternity' uses found clips of models with prosthetic pregnancy bellies from fast-fashion e-commerce, with subtitles inspired by Ingeborg Bachmann's novel 'Malina' and early internet 'sad-boy' subcultures. In the Unlimited section, Turner Prize-nominated artist Goshka Macuga presents 'Exhibition M: A Re-enactment,' a live performance featuring characters André Malraux, Alfred H. Barr Jr., and Macuga herself, exploring museum history and future. The diary also notes a recent Swiss referendum where nearly 55% voted against limiting the population to 10 million, with a curator joking that art world visitors might tip the count over 10 million.