PRESENTATION:Regionale 2025

The Regionale is a unique cross-border exhibition project that has been bringing together artists and exhibition venues from Northwestern Switzerland, Southern Baden, and Alsace for over 25 years. It provides a platform where contemporary art, in all its diversity and expressive power, is made accessible to a wide audience. As a central actor, the Regionale promotes exchange between artists, curators, and the public, creating a space for artistic and societal debates that remain relevant beyond national borders and exhibition periods. As an important forum for reflection and exchange, it makes a significant contribution to the networking and cultural dynamism of the region.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Regionale 2025 Archive

Around 900 artists from different social contexts applied for the open call of Regionale 2025 published in spring. The curators of the 18 participating art institutions selected a total of 186 artists, including 10 collectives. The six-week exhibition period promotes exchange and cohesion in the region and highlights the impulses and perspectives of the artists. The Regionale is not only an important platform for artists in and around Basel, but also a sounding board for social debates of international scope in the region. The exhibitions of Regionale 25 explore the complex interplay between personal and collective identities, between social responsibility and the longing for connection. They focus on dissolving the boundaries that shape our lives: physical, intellectual, cultural, and digital. The artists create spaces where the interplay of these contrasts is vividly projected onto societal, ecological, and existential questions, as well as our daily lives. Many works examine blurred transitions and ambiguities, such as those between protection and threat, intimacy and publicity, reality and fiction, or human ambition and ecological limits. Additionally, some exhibitions and works address the challenge of navigating between regional rootedness and global influence, and the diverse actions and perceptions this brings forth. Through dialogical and often participatory formats, the audience is invited to engage with the transformations of modern life from new perspectives. In doing so, they offer insights into a shared social practice that resonates as a communal experience beyond the institutional framework. The artists not only question the role of individuals in times of change but subtly encourage us to transcend familiar structures, embrace reorientation, and understand artistic processes as a cyclical interplay between creation and reception. Among the other exhibitions are: “Furnace Creek” inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Zabriskie Point, invites viewers to experience the vastness of the desert as a metaphor for radical change and new beginnings. Furnace Creek, located in America’s Death Valley, symbolizes extremes, survival, and transformation. Drawing from this barren, seemingly inhospitable landscape, the exhibition explores themes such as identity, departure, and rebellion through artistic expression. In the film, the two protagonists meet while on the run and find common ground in their call for freedom. The film concludes with an explosion that turns the sky red—a moment of destruction that heralds the start of something new. “We Have To Talk Care”: Nika Timashkova grew up in two countries: she was born in Ukraine but moved to Switzerland as a child. Her perception of reality and her work are deeply influenced and shaped by cultural interweaving and being rooted in different languages. Her art seeks to dissolve boundary symbols, replacing them with imaginative worlds that create space for the feeling of being welcomed. The exhibition explores the interplay of beings and objects coexisting in the same space. The exhibition invites us to conceive an existing and potential world of forms and symbols that encourages us to linger. The multi-part installation in the entrance hall of the Filature includes, among other works, a video piece evoking memories of a distant land we feel connected to, and a series of sculptures with deliberately blurred faces, poetically challenging the categorization and classification of beings. In the in-between spaces of existence, “A Private Smile” unfolds a journey through 13 artistic perspectives from the tri-border region around Basel. The participating artists explore the fluid boundaries between private and public spaces, where intimacy meets the collective. From room corners to public squares, the gaze seeks a connection to the everyday. The exhibition invites us to rethink spaces and uncover what is hidden within the visible. The “private smile” represents a subtle, almost homely moment intended not for the crowd but for the self. It forms a bridge between inner and outer worlds, hinting at truths, desires, and experiences. This smile offers fleeting connections, drawing viewers into a space that feels both familiar and mysterious, as though it whispers a secret that can only be understood in silence. “Bartender’s Choice”: What makes the Cargo Bar a unique exhibition venue is that it is not a traditional art institution. It brings together worlds that rarely intersect in conventional art spaces. Most of the audience does not come to the bar for the art, and the staff is not from typical art circles, offering their own independent perspectives. Regionale intentionally placed this dynamic at the center of its curatorial approach by appointing the bar team as the jury for this year’s Regionale. Every staff member selected works from the submitted applications, which were then collaboratively curated in a joint jury session to form the final exhibition.

Photo: Vincent Kriste, « Teppich », Détail, Collection FRAC Alsace, acquisition en 2024 suite à la Regionale 23 © Vincent Kriste

Info: Curators: Babics Michael, Brunnschweiler Heidi, Diering Felizitas, Goldbach Ines, Grau Pascale, Jenni Olivia, Kauffenstein Sophie, Kuzmanovic Angelina, Luetzelschwab Patrick, Neuenschwander Simone, Ott Michael, Perrin Valérie, Popovic Chris, Rasmussen Tuula, Raufeisen Marilena, Tondar Ines, Walter Emmanuelle, Wymann Sandrine. Venues: France: Accélérateur de particules (Strassburg) / FABRIKculture (Hegenheim)  / FRAC Alsace (Schlettstadt) /  La Filature Scène nationale, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse (Mulhouse). Germany: DELPHI_space, E-WERK Galerie für Gegenwartskunst,   Kunstverein Freiburg & T66 Kulturwerk (Freiburg) / Städtische Galerie Stapflehus (Weil am Rhein). Switzerland:  Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Cargo Bar, HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste), Kunsthalle Basel (Basel) / Kunst Raum Riehen (Riehen) / Kunsthalle Palazzo (Liestal) / Kunsthaus Baselland (Münchenstein) / Projektraum M54  (Visarte Region Basel)m Duration: 28/11/2024-5/1/2025, Days & Hours: see here, https://regionale.org/