ART CITIES:Basel-Steve MᶜQueen
For more than 30 years, artist and filmmaker Steve MᶜQueen has continually investigated the possibilities inherent in film as a material, a documentary tool, and a storytelling medium, resulting in work that is formally inventive and politically pointed. Using projected light and sound, much like a sculptor or a painter, MᶜQueen situates his films and videos within installations that resonate on multiple levels, extending beyond the conventional frame of cinema.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Laurenz Foundation Archive
“Bass” is a site-specific installation uniquely attuned to the architectural character of Schaulager, reflecting Steve MᶜQueen’s enduring fascination with how light, color, and sound shape our physical and emotional perception of space and time. In 2022, McQueen was invited to develop a new project to be premiered at Dia Art Foundation before traveling to Schaulager. Encountering the vast, columned halls of Dia Beacon, he took an unexpected turn: rather than creating a film, he conceived a powerful yet intangible intervention composed solely of light and sound. Premiering at Dia Beacon in 2024, *Bass* has since been reimagined specifically for the monumental interior of Schaulager. Radically immersive and entirely immaterial, *Bass* envelops visitors in a multisensory experience. Deep, resonant bass frequencies pulse through the space—at times reduced to singular tones, at others forming fleeting fragments of melody—modulating in intensity to create a constantly shifting sonic atmosphere. Simultaneously, the space is bathed in light that cycles almost imperceptibly through the full spectrum of visible color, from deep crimson to near-ultraviolet. This gradual chromatic transformation reinforces the meditative power of the sound, heightening awareness of one’s presence in space and the passage of time. The installation takes full advantage of Schaulager’s monumental scale, occupying the full height of its soaring atrium and the expansive breadth of its exhibition spaces. The building itself becomes a resonant body, amplifying the work’s physical and emotional impact. Visitors are not merely observers but participants—drawn into an immediate, enveloping environment that demands stillness, attention, and introspection. The soundscape of “Bass” was developed in close collaboration with an intergenerational ensemble of musicians from the Black diaspora, working under MᶜQueen’s direction and that of renowned bassist Marcus Miller. The group includes celebrated artists such as Meshell Ndegeocello and Aston Barrett Jr. on electric bass, Mamadou Kouyaté on the ngoni (a traditional West African string instrument), and Laura-Simone Martin on upright acoustic bass. Together, they shaped a composition that reverberates with emotional depth and cultural resonance. MᶜQueen’s preoccupation with the bass is both aesthetic and symbolic. As a foundational element in Black musical traditions, the bass is more than an instrument—it is a vessel of cultural memory and emotional expression. It speaks in tones that transcend language, giving voice to histories, identities, and inner states that might otherwise remain unspoken. With *Bass*, MᶜQueen doesn’t just fill space— he transforms it into a deeply charged, contemplative field where sound, color, and history converge.
Photo left & right: Steve MᶜQueen, Bass, 2024, LED Light and Sound, Courtesy the artist, Co-commissioned work by Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel and Dia Art Foundation, 15 June – 16 November 2025, Schaulager® Münchenstein/Basel (Installation view), Photo: Pati Grabowicz, © Steve MᶜQueen
Info: Curtors: Donna De Salvo & Emily Markert and Randy Gibson, The Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, Ruchfeldstrasse 19, Münchenstein, Switzerland, Duration: 15/6-16/11/2025, Days & Hours: Thu 12:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-17:00, https://schaulager.org/
