der TANK

der TANK is the exhibition
 space of the Art Institute at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design on the Campus of the Arts at Dreispitz, Basel.

A glass cube at the core of the campus, the enclosed openness of der TANK acts as a metaphor for the Institute as a whole, its name also referring to our salmon emblem. The Rhine, found at the heart of Basel, was once the largest salmon-bearing river in Europe. A mere century ago, millions of the fish could be found in the river and its tributaries. Hatched in the fresh water of the Swiss Alps, the salmon would travel all the way to the ocean waters near Greenland only to return several years later to their birthplace in the mountain’s rivers to reproduce. Only since 1991, after a tumultuous century of cultural and industrial transformation affecting the river, has the salmon population and its habits been reinstated in the Rhine. Our Institute reflects this return to teeming life in a city renowned for its art historical importance.

der TANK is host to art practices that are just a little different from those found in traditional project spaces or art institution exhibition galleries. It also provides an opportunity to reflect differently on art practice today, providing a place for meditations on future notions of technology, life, materials, and commonality.