Sophie Jung’s Guide to Basel
Sophie Jung, The Bigger Sleep at Kunstmuseum Basel. Image Julian Salinas.
Sophie Jung is a Basel based artist known for her slapstick combination of assemblage sculpture, text, and performance works that navigate the politics of fragmented representation.
Jung’s sculptures seem to behave as stage props, setting the uncertain scene for poetic recitals of similarly haphazard compositions where one might be surprised by bouts of singing, magic, or even live goats. Importantly Jung’s sculptural works comprise bodies, human and non-human, who are liberated from past lives as significant possessions and stand in equality with their surroundings placing the value instead on the relationships between them, the audience and performative activations.
Sophie Jung, Swiss Art Awards, 17-22 June 2025, Halle 1.1, Messeplatz, Basel
During Art Basel 2025, Jung will be presenting for the 4th time at the Swiss Art Awards, of which she is two-time winner, which takes place in the same building as the fair, and with Spielzeug Gallery at Basel Social Club, a non-profit local community art-fair-meets-cultural-event which coincides with the fair. Jung is currently working on her first monograph with Mousse Publishing, and an upcoming solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern.
Sophie Jung has exhibited widely, including at Centre Pompidou, Paris; Istituto Svizzero, Milan; Kunstraum London; Kunsthalle Basel; National Gallery Prague; Kunst Haus Wien; and Ballroom Marfa. Jung is a member of the board of Kunsthalle Basel, and the recipient of the Swiss Manor Cultural Prize.
Image credits: (1) Sophie Jung, Are We Bodies at Cabaret Voltaire Curated by Vlada Tcharyeva, 2019; (2) Reifiction, 2024, Mixed media on paper, 20 x 30 cm; (3) The Bigger Sleep at Kunstmuseum Basel Image Gina Folly; (4) The Medusa, 2019, Broken in three places at A plus A Gallery, Venice Image Clelia Cadamuro; (5) Unsetting at Istituto Svizzero Milano. Image Giulio Boem.
Art Guides World is charmed to have Jung as our guide to Basel ahead of what the locals call ‘Art’ in mid June. We note that in German, Art is Kunst, meaning Art is shorthand for the fair, despite non-Baslers calling it Basel–also known as Bâle in French and Basle in Baseldytsch, the local dialect–which may give some insight into why Jung employs the politics of language…
☉ How would you compare Basel during Art to Basel during the rest of the year?
For us Basel turns into many places at once where we get to hang out with friends from Tbilisi, London, LA, etc. Many friends I miss throughout the year suddenly turn up all at once. We usually host more people than can fit our home and we all tumble through the week loved up on friendship and grossed out by what our industry actually is and does. For people who don‘t work in the arts Basel is just a little more well-dressed than usual and coffee prices in Kleinbasel go up.
☉What are the most cherished places for you throughout the city?
As a new parent those places have changed. My second home is now the lawn at Kaserne, the beach at Birsköpfli, Foyer Public at Theater Basel or the St. Johanns Park café. Anywhere comfy where we can linger for longer. The places I truly miss when I’m away are Taste Me– a hole in the wall curry place that does a spectacular 5-veg curries for 12.- [swiss francs], Matthäusmarkt coffee mobile on a Saturday, Acero’s unbeatable ice cream, Hirscheneck for brunch and all the many Brockis [thrift stores] Basel has, first and foremost Glubos–a collective whose profit goes to the Frauenhaus [Women’s House]. The botanical gardens, which are central, free and and have a multitude of climates to dwell in - depending on your needs (moss house in the summer, tropical greenhouse in the winter.) Of course my daily walks by the river, although that is something I pause in the summer as my neurodivergent brain can’t handle the noise of the many different speakers blasting shitty music over each other.
In theory I cherish our many excellent institutions, the Kunstmuseum, the Kunsthalle, the Kunst Haus Basel Land, HEK, the Literaturhaus, the Institute for Art Gender Nature where I’ve had the pleasure of working as a mentor for a few years now, the Theater (esp the dance section for the past two years) and the many brilliant alternative spaces that work collectively to hold the local and broader community together, such as Amore or Kasko. The place I cherish most however is my studio, which I will sadly have to leave later this year.
☉ If you were mayor, what would you change?
Since we have a Regierungsrat [legislature] of five people from different parties I would never have the power to actually decide things on my own. But if I was in politics I would fight for a recognition of Palestinian statehood, ban the export of weapons, introduce free childcare, higher wealth taxes, stronger renter’s rights and (in case I wouldn’t be able to abolish them single-handedly) a police force that is properly held accountable.
As we are a direct democracy that votes on the smallest of issues–I’d campaign for noise free zones in public places (as a disability rights issue), for consume-free spots under the shade of trees by the river (bring back the lawns), better leisure infrastructure in Kleinbasel (fuck off Tattoo) [a two-week military event on Kaserne’s green each summer] and a ban on the destruction of historic and affordable housing stock.
Image credits: (1) Sophie Jung, Gen. de Famation (spouting Off. Fed. In Formation), 2020 Unsetting at Istituto Svizzero Milano Image Giulio Boem; (2) Sophie Jung, Come Fresh Hell or Fresh High Water, 2017 Courtesy the artist and Blain|Southern; (3) Sophie Jung, The Last Leg (Comrades), 2020, Unsetting at Istituto Svizzero Milano Image Giulio Boem; (4, 5, 6) Sophie Jung, The Medusa, 2019; The Stalker (detail), 2023; and Wahrnzeichen, 2023 in Broken in three places at A plus A Gallery, Venice. Images Clelia Cadamuro.
