As the Art Basel Fair surges into the city with its tidal wave of global art energy, one of the most unmissable moments is the Steve McQueen’s exhibition at the Laurenz Foundation in Schaulager Basel. Running from June 15th to November 16th, 2025, this installation—titled Bass—marks a powerful return for the Turner Prize–winning artist, arriving twelve years after his last major showing at the same venue. And this time, the Steve McQueen exhibition brings something completely unexpected.
Departing from his familiar visual storytelling, Bass dives into pure sensory abstraction. The Steve McQueen exhibition here strips cinema to its bones—light and sound—crafting a 40-minute, immersive audio-visual work that envelopes the viewer in color, vibration, and emotional reverberation. Originally premiered at Dia Beacon, Bass has been entirely reimagined to interact with the unique architectural qualities of the Laurenz Foundation, turning its concrete forms into a resonating chamber of low-frequency sound and flickering hues.
The Laurenz Foundation provides the perfect backdrop for this bold experiment. McQueen’s deep fascination with how sound and light behave—at once fluid, intangible, and omnipresent—finds new form in this setting. But the Steve McQueen exhibition goes far beyond pure aesthetics. Bass engages with themes of identity, absence, and the shared memory of the Black diaspora. It challenges perception, inviting viewers into a “beginning point,” where form dissolves and emotion takes the lead.
Adding further depth to the Steve McQueen exhibition, two specially designed publications accompany the show. Developed in close collaboration with McQueen and acclaimed Dutch designer Irma Boom, they extend the experience from the immersive to the tactile, capturing the ephemeral nature of Bass in printed form.
For those attending the Art Basel Fair, this is not just another installation—it’s a sensory milestone. The Laurenz Foundation becomes a vital stop on the fair’s cultural map, proving that art can move far beyond the visual. This Steve McQueen exhibition invites you to not just see, but to feel—deeply, physically, and with lasting resonance.
Don’t miss our full Art Basel Fair guide for more curated highlights.
STEVE MCQUEEN
Bass, 2024, LED Light and Sound
Courtesy of STEVE MCQUEEN, Co-commissioned work by LAURENZ FOUNDATION, SCHAULAGER BASEL and DIA ART FOUNDATION, 15 June – 16 November 2025, Schaulager® Münchenstein/Basel (Installation view), Photography by PATI GRABOWICZ, © Steve McQueen