Panels around care, collectivity, and connectivity take center stage in Basel

Emily Butler

Discover highlights from the 2023 Conversations program

What does care mean? The term gained much traction in cultural circles after the Covid pandemic. Is it a sweeping call for the art world to reconsider its pace and the wellbeing of its community, or an invitation to rethink our relationship to others and to our ecosystem?
Rosi Braidotti addressed this topic a decade ago in The Posthuman (2013); ‘As embodied or embedded entities, we are all part of nature,’ she wrote. The feminist philosopher challenged human-centric cognition and its division of nature and culture, with a view to opening up notions of radical coexistence with ‘others,’ be they non-humans or new technologies. Moving beyond an egocentric worldview, she invites us to embrace new ways of caring and relating to others through new forms of collectivity and connectivity.

This year's Art Basel Conversations program presents over 50 different voices, coming together to debate how to make the art world a more caring place in both practical and theoretical terms. Setting the stage for the program is the pioneering artist, curator, and educator <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-basel-premiere-artist-talk-lubaina-himid-1" target="_blank">Lubaina Himid</a>, who reflects on her seminal 1986 work A Fashionable Marriage, a Hogarth-inspired mise-en-scène critiquing the relation of global politics and art during the 1980s – a highlight of the Unlimited sector this year. 
The topic of artists supporting their peers is developed further in <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-artist-led-spaces-learning-from-the-african-continent" target="_blank">‘Artist-Led Spaces’</a> a panel showcasing four initiatives on the African continent – based in Kumasi, Lagos, Nairobi, and Harare – with artists Yinka Shonibare and Kaloki Nyamai, and curators Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh, Dana Whabira, and Kadiatou Diallo. In <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-shifting-mindsets-welcoming-parenthood-art-world" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-shifting-mindsets-welcoming-parenthood-art-world" target="_blank">‘</a>Shifting Mindsets<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-shifting-mindsets-welcoming-parenthood-art-world" target="_blank">’</a>, artists Andrea Büttner, Camille Henrot, and Basim Magdy discuss the shift needed to nurture greater acceptance and support of parents in the art world.

In a panel <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-liverpool-biennial-2023-presents-umoya-the-cosmology-of-breath" target="_blank">curated in collaboration with Liverpool Biennial 2023</a>, we delve into the relationship between ancestral knowledge and healing, where breathing is considered as a political act, an urgent engagement of cosmological forces. This conversation with artists Nolan Oswald Dennis and Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, hosted by the biennial’s curator Khanyisile Mbongwa, will reflect on protest and other acts of resistance through the work of breathing. 
Another highlight of the program is the <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-sonic-performance-julianknxx--whose-dream-is-this" target="_blank">sonic performance by artist and poet Julianknxx</a>, accompanied by singer anaiis and a local choir responding to his short film In A Dream We Are at Once Beautiful (2022). The work centers on African diasporic communities in Switzerland through a series of lush vignettes, asking, ‘whose dreams are we attempting to live?’

The ever-topical subject of <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-how-to-overcome-gender-barriers-in-the-art-market" target="_blank">overcoming gender barriers in the art world</a> is discussed by researchers Clare McAndrew and Sophie Perceval, gallerist Amrita Jhaveri, and curator Kate Fowle, in a talk moderated by Charlotte Burns, co-author of the 2022 Burns Halperin Report on representation within collections and galleries.
How can architecture give expression to a museum’s democratic aspirations and accommodate new forms of digital creativity? What are the responsibilities of museum architecture when it comes to raising ecological awareness and the ongoing process of decolonizing collections? <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-the-architecture-of-the-future-museum" target="_blank">These challenges and more are debated by the leading architects</a> Lina Ghotmeh, Kulapat Yantrasast, and Jacques Herzog, and museum director Klaus Biesenbach.
Considering the philosophical implications of the term ‘environment,’ Es Devlin exchanges <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-intersections-in-art" target="_blank">more-than-human intelligence, ecology, and spatial concerns</a> with artist and poet LionHeart, biologist and award-winning writer Merlin Sheldrake, and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Finally, a topical panel dives into the ethical and artistic dilemmas of <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/conversations-art-basel-co-creating-with-ai-the-artist-s-view" target="_blank">co-creating with AI</a>, with artists Suzanne Treister, Marguerite Humeau, and researcher Roger Wattenhofer. How is AI affecting our understanding of agency and creativity – both human and machine – and what does this mean for art?
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Emily Butler is Art Basel’s Conversations Curator.
Conversations brings together today’s most inspiring cultural figures. The program runs June 14 to 17, 2023 and will be livestreamed on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/artbasel/events/?ref=page_internal" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. View the full lineup of Conversations and book your free ticket <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/browse?eventTypes=502&orderBy=endDate%20ASC%2CstartDate%20ASC" target="_blank">here</a>.
Published on June 2, 2023.
Caption for full-bleed image (from top to bottom): 1. Julianknxx, In A Dream We Are At Once Beautiful,&nbsp;2022. 4k film, 20 min approx, Courtesy of the artist © Studioknxx. 2.&nbsp;Artwork detail Lubaina Himid in Hollybush Gardens's booth at Art Basel 2018.&nbsp;3.&nbsp;Es Devlin.&nbsp;© Daniel Devlin

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