It takes a full year to bring one of Art Basel's most popular exhibits to life. Here's how it all comes together.

20.06.2024 - 15:59 / insider.com / Art Basel

Giovanni Carmine tosses out words like "dialogue" and "conversation" to describe the relationship between artworks in Unlimited, an exhibition at the annual Art Basel show in Switzerland.

Carmine, the director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, told Business Insider his goal as the exhibit curator is to find a way for pieces with vastly different subjects to flow together and converse.

While some pieces, like Lutz Bacher's "Chess," have literal sound, others, like David Claerbout's "Birdcage," intentionally leave out noise. Regardless of the sound a piece omits, Carmine hopes it ignites a discussion among the observers.

"The people that come here, they will have — maybe for the first time — an experience they will never forget," Carmine said. "This is the proposition that art makes: Let's discuss things together, let's figure it out, and let's challenge ourselves, too."

For Carmine, creating a space to welcome those conversations doesn't start weeks or months before the show. Curating a space like Unlimited takes a year to complete.

For one week each summer, the Swiss town of Basel ushers in an influx of visitors. Gallery owners, museum curators, artists, and art-curious tourists arrive for the Art Basel show.

The weeklong event is divided into a handful of sectors. Art installations dot public spaces, creating the Parcours program. Inside one large hall, more than 250 galleries display art from around the world. Films are showcased, and experts host discussions, Q&As, and debates.

Perhaps the most popular part of Art Basel is the Unlimited sector, famous for its large-scale works. The exhibition doesn't have a theme, but Carmine describes it as "an overview of contemporary art and what is interesting at the moment in the market."

In a hall the size of three football fields, artists can create and showcase work without physical barriers.

This year, 70 projects were featured in the 172,000-square-foot room. The works include immense installations, seemingly never-ending paintings, captivating live performances, encompassing photo series, and striking video projections.

For example, Chiharu Shiota's "The Extended Line" takes up about 1,550 square feet of the hall. Miles of red rope hangs above a bronze cast of the artist's open hands and arms, urging viewers to question what it means to be human. In another area of the hall, 1,200 of the world's most popular names stretch across a wall in a project titled "The World: A Moment in Time" by Allan McCollum.

Carmine said the placement of each piece is intentional. But before he can decide where an artwork will find its home in the hall, Carmine must select what will be displayed — something that starts a year in advance.

"The moment we open the show is the moment