Liste Art Fair Basel 2025

Liste celebrates its 30th edition while maintaining its mission to present galleries and artists who shape the current landscape of contemporary art. Approximately 100 galleries from 32 countries present pioneering international positions in contemporary art at Messe Basel. The anniversary edition brings together a dynamic mix of emerging and more established galleries. Over 40 galleries participate in the fair for the first time, while around 50 return, contributing significantly to the development of contemporary art through their outstanding programmes. The 2025 edition also marks the first under the directorship of Nikola Dietrich. With a deep understanding of artistic developments and a strong awareness of current discourses, she guides the fair with a precise and considered approach, fostering an environment in which art encourages dialogue and reaches an international audience. The fair features a newly conceived spatial design by Basel-based architect Martina Kausch, creating unexpected visual connections that range from intimate meeting points to an open plaza.

Friends of Liste
Friends of Liste continues to support ambitious projects by galleries and their represented artists. Each year, the association selects booths and works that stand out for their originality and relevance. In 2025, it supports 11 galleries: Bar, Turin; Bombon, Barcelona; Bonny Poon / Conditions, Toronto; Final Hot Desert, London; Harlesden High Street, London; King’s Leap, New York; N/A, Seoul; Parallel Oaxaca, Oaxaca; Shower and Whistle, Seoul; and Valerie’s Factory, Buenos Aires. An expert jury makes the selections annually.

Featured Guests
With its newly designed architecture, Liste launches Wall, a platform dedicated to project spaces and artist-run initiatives. Invited participants include The Wig, Berlin; Galerina, London; and Institut Funder Bakke, Silkeborg – all of whom use the walls for specially curated artistic projects.

The Spine Book Forum
Curated by art book publisher Distanz, the Spine Book Forum serves as the fair’s new bookshop. It features around 100 new publications from 30 publishers across the fields of art, literature, theory, architecture and film.

Helvetia Art Prize
Helvetia Insurance returns with its annual prize for an outstanding graduate of a Swiss art school. This year’s winner, Virginie Sistek, explores social power structures and mechanisms of conformity in her installations, performances and videos. With subtle narrative precision and subversive humour, she questions forms of control and domestication. The prize includes CHF 15,000 and a solo presentation at Liste.

Daily Programme
For its 30th edition, Liste presents a new series of daily events that activate various spaces within the fair hall. These include a performance programme featuring international artists, developed in collaboration with curator Jacob Fabricius; the Show and Tell format, where figures from the art world take part in talks and panel discussions; and five workshops hosted by artist Tina Braegger, who invites children to create their own versions of the iconic Grateful Dead bears. The full programme will be announced in early June.

Architecture
The fair’s exhibition architecture follows a new spatial concept developed by Basel-based studio Martina Kausch Architektinnen for Liste 2025. Existing structures are reconfigured and repurposed to create a new rhythm within the hall. The result is a variety of settings and unexpected sightlines, offering diverse visual and spatial experiences and encouraging new encounters between art and audience.