BASEL, SWITZERLAND.- Art Basel takes place in the museum city of Basel (Switzerland) from June 15 to 20, 2005. It is the world’s leading art show and the annual meeting place of the international art world. 270 galleries from all continents have been selected to participate. They will be showing works by over 1,500 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. For the first time, there will also be a special exhibition of artists’ books this year. Further special sectors present one-person shows of young artists, original prints and multiples, artists’ films, and art in urban space. The «Art Unlimited» hall, showing 60 outsize projects, and «Art Basel Conversations», featuring distinguished panelists, represent further highlights. «Professional Day», which was initiated last year, will be held on Friday, June 17, this year. The museums of the city will be staging noteworthy exhibitions and a broad range of events to complement the art show.

The 36th edition of Art Basel, which is open to the public from June 15 to 20, opens on June 14 with a vernissage for invited guests. This annual reunion of the art world attracts some 50,000 artists, collectors, gallery owners, curators, and art enthusiasts. They come to see the largest, most rigorously juried overview of what is on offer on the international art market and to meet the stars and insiders of the art scene. Covered by over 1,500 media representatives, Art Basel bases its outstanding reputation on the high quality and unique variety of works on display and on the international audiences it attracts.

Art 36 Basel is sure to figure alongside the 51st Venice Biennale – which, ideally enough, opens the previous weekend – as the highlight of the 2005 summer art season. Professional Day, which was introduced with such success last year, will be held on Friday, June 17, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Numerous galleries will be organizing special exhibitions and programs for it. Professional Day is aimed at museum professionals, art dealers, artists, and collectors.

For the first time there will be a special presentation of artists’ books this year. The «Artists’ Books» exhibition features a selection of particularly noteworthy specimens created since the turn of the millennium, chosen to offer insight into the diversity and vitality of this interesting and affordable collecting area. Artists’ books have led a marginal existence at art shows up to now, in some cases because booths were too expensive and not particularly suitable for their presentation. By inviting galleries and specialized publishers from all over the world to show their artists’ books here, Art Basel hopes to create an ideal platform for presenting and selling this very quiet art form to an international audience. The exhibition is scheduled to be supplemented by information events and presentations in the presence of the artists. «Artists’ Books» is organized by Geneva curator and publisher Lionel Bovier in collaboration with Basel gallery owner Diego Stampa.