Market Square, Basel
13 June - 27 July 2025
For the third edition of the “Globus Public Art Project”, Los Angeles-based Swiss artist Urs Fischer intervenes on the Globus department store’s construction façade as well as in several nearby locations, from the city’s historical Marktplatz to the so-called “Totehüsli”, an ossuary that was once attached to a church. For this project, Urs Fischer, internationally celebrated for the intricacy and wit of his provocative sculptures and installations, takes inspiration from Basel’s medieval “Totentanz (Dance of Death)”, an iconographic symbol of the inescapability of death and its ubiquity in life itself. Fischer’s works take up this set of motifs, transposing them into a contemporary artistic language, which confronts viewers with their own finitude. They include a self-portrait made of candle wax, skeleton sculptures inspired by art history and contemporary imagery, as well as a new production for the department store’s façade.
As part of the three-year renovation of its iconic department store on Basel’s Marktplatz, Globus, in collaboration with the Fondation Beyeler, is inviting artists to create new site-specific artworks that engage with both the building and the public. Following the two projects with Claudia Comte and Julian Charrière in the past two years, the project with Urs Fischer marks the crowning finale of the series.