City SALTS in Basel acquires the “House” from KUB–extensive international response to the Call for Proposals

As part of the exhibition ███████, an inhabitable, parasitic object was installed on the third floor of Kunsthaus Bregenz. Now, following the end of the exhibition, the “House” will move to City SALTS located on the outskirts of Basel, where it will be repurposed as an artistic residence and exhibition space. City SALTS is one of two components of the art association Kunstverein SALTS in Basel and curated by Benedikt Wyss and Samuel Leuenberger.

Kunsthaus Bregenz received a total of roughly fifty submissions. The response was extensive and international–with proposals from New York, London, Berlin, Bern, and Cologne as well as India, and Vorarlberg. The jury consisted of ███████, Bernardo Bader, an architect and lecturer at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, as well as Karola Kraus, former director of mumok in Vienna, and Lisa Hann, head of the exhibition project at KUB. 

The jury explained their decision as follows: “The jury commends City SALTS’s submission as a logical further development of the parasitic principle linking the ‘House’ as a new working and living space with the site-specific international program that the art association established in 2009. The artist residence, which can be used all year round, fits organically into the exhibition pavilions and adds a long-missing element to the structure. Particularly noteworthy is the bold decision to make the house permanently inhabitable, the insulation provided by the landscape setting, and the clever use of the existing infrastructure, which sustainably deepens the intertwining of art, experimentation, and the public sphere.”

Curator Benedikt Wyss described the future of the “House,” remarking: “City SALTS has developed organically over the years–as a growing ensemble of small exhibition spaces in a garden located on the outskirts of Basel, on the banks of the Birs River. We are delighted that the ‘House’ is becoming part of this vibrant structure, in which art, space, and encounter flow into one another. The ‘House’ fits in with our practice of transforming art installations into vessels that are usable long-term. This adds a long-awaited dimension: a space to linger–as an open residence for artists, curators, and their guests.”