How HeK single-handedly turned Basel into a destination for media art

‘I’ve always been attracted to media art because it addresses the issues of our time.’— Sabine Himmelsbach, Director of HeK

HeK, or, to give its full name House of Electronic Arts, has been a leading champion of digital culture since it opened in 2011. Located since 2014 in the fast-expanding area of Dreispitz – a former freeport on Basel’s outskirts, also home to the city’s art school – HeK is a reference in what has been until recently a relatively niche field: media art. Its program ranges from solo exhibitions by big-hitters such as Ryoji Ikeda and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, to group shows tackling urgent subjects such as big data politics and sexuality in the information age. A place for research as well as exhibition, HeK has also been a key driver in developing the thinking around the display and preservation of net-based art.

During Art Basel, HeK is hosting a solo show by media art pioneer Lynn Hershman Leeson. ‘Lynn Hershman Leeson: Anti-Bodies’ presents the artist’s latest body of work, which focuses on genetic experimentation and biotechnology. It includes an actual antibody-as-artwork, a protein named after the artist and developed in collaboration with Novartis scientists.