The 2025 edition of Art Basel's Parcours, curated by Stefanie Hessler, Director of Swiss Institute New York, transforms Basel’s public spaces—empty stores, shops, a hotel, an underpass, an office building, and the riverfront—into a curated exhibition titled “Second Nature.” This free Art Basel sector explores the blurred boundaries between nature and artifice, original and repetition, and ingrained habits versus disruptions. Featuring over 20 site-responsive, largely new projects by emerging and established artists, the intergenerational exhibition delves into sensory perceptions beyond the visual. “Second Nature” examines deeply rooted customs and rituals through diverse lenses: artists question perceived natural patterns, explore supernatural and artificial elements, and subvert expectations. Projects address proliferating image and information loops as modern rituals, storytelling across analog and algorithmic media, and the interplay of personal memory and historic narratives. Others probe the valuation of bodies and life, oscillating between flesh, commodity, and artifact.
