A look back at the approach and programming of the Basel-based modular independent art space, between living, working and exhibition space.
What happens when you fuse an exhibition format with a versatile space for daily domestic encounters? Since 2019, the Palazzina team has explored this question in three different neighborhoods.
Palazzina. Ring Everywhere pairs installation views from 30 projects featuring 100+ artists with essays by
Ingo Niermann, Nora Joung, Cassiane C. Pfund, Ines Goldbach, and an interview with Palazzina members moderated by Marlene Marti Bürgi. This publication thus continues the welcoming and collaborative exchange that has been initiated by the Basel-based, independent exhibition project Palazzina.
Palazzina was founded in 2019 by
Noemi Pfister and Victoria Holdt at Schweizergasse 2 in Basel and is both an artists' house and a non-profit exhibition space for contemporary art. The members, who are also residents, have come together since its founding to lead the project and create a space that sees itself as a versatile place for exchange, discussion, living, curating and working together.
What is characteristic for Palazzina is an interest in the interweaving of living space and exhibition space. Several exhibition projects that have been realized so far with established and younger positions took place in three different houses—located in Schweizergasse (2019-2020), Alemannengasse (2020-2022) and Baslerstrasse (2022-2024)—, each of which also served as a home for the members.
A non-hierarchical and democratic internal structure for organizing exhibitions, as well as intensive exchange with the invited artists, is the focus of the team's way of working. The exhibiting artists are always invited to live and work in Palazzina - even for longer periods of time. This is where ideas grow and joint conversations and decisions arise in everyday situations and encounters. These intuitive, random, personal and informal exchange moments are an essential and valuable part of the project and shape the hospitable attitude and the constant openness to learning from each other. From the very beginning, site-specific works and interventions developed in every conceivable room in the residential buildings, blurring the boundaries between public and private space.
