This section contains an overview of the most relevant exhibitions in Switzerland and neighbouring regions. Each item is connected to the organizing museum.
Clothing has always been protection, decoration as the social sign of identity. Clothing also depicts the contours of the body in the most creative and often complicated way. The exhibition illustrates this history from the 17th to the 21st century through a selection of women’s and men’s clothing and contemporary creations.
Around 200 000 people of 200 different nationalities live in Basel today. The city forms the centre of a large trinational region with a long history. The exhibition presents the major events and historical milestones that have shaped the city and the region. There will be items attesting to key events in the city’s history, objects of everyday use and six short films that open up historical perspectives on contemporary issues such as the influence of immigration and migration, the role of the pharmaceutical industry, the relationship between town and country. There are also interactive installations combining city maps, historical photographs, facts and figures on Basel’s urban and demographic development.
The museum focuses on issues related to global interdependencies. These interdependencies become especially evident when tracing the history of valuable trade goods and their transport routes. Products such as coffee, cocoa, petroleum, opium, sugar, silk, watches and diamonds have had a hand in shaping countries, cultures and societies. The current exhibition discusses the major world exhibitions in London, Paris, Vienna and Chicago in the nineteenth century and their aspirations to subject the world according to Western standards. The stereotypes that grew out of these structures have lives of their own, which continue to resonate to this day. World Exhibition is an attempt to capture these forms through the means of art.