Basel's Schaulager debuts - Front Page - new museum, Basel, Switzerland

A new venue for contemporary art, the Schaulager, recently opened on the outskirts of Basel, Switzerland. Designed by the Swiss architectural team Herzog & de Meuron, the 215,000-square-foot, multilevel structure functions as a high-tech storage facility for works held by the Emmanuel Hoffmann Foundation and as a public exhibition space. Established in 1933 by Maja Hoffmann-Stehlin, later Maja Sacher (1898-1989), the foundation has assembled a collection of 650 modern and contemporary pieces, many of which had been on extended loan to the Basel Kunstmuseum. These works have been relocated to the new facility built and operated under the auspices of the Laurenz Foundation, which was established in 1999 by Sacher's granddaughter, Maja Oeri. The Schaulager represents a flexible concept in art storage, permitting many works to be easily unpacked and made available for scrutiny by experts and scholars who apply to see them. The public is admitted to the ground floor and lower-level exhibition spaces set aside for temporary shows.

In addition to its imposing polygonal main structure, the Schaulager also features a small house that stands at the entranceway. Visitors passing through this building enter a courtyard flanked by mural-size screens, set high up on the facade, that show video work selected from the Schaulager's collection. While much of the lower-level facade consists of glass doors and windows, the rest of the structure has densely textured walls that are almost entirely windowless. The outer walls are entrusted with pebbles and small rocks taken from nearby soil, some of it displaced by the building's foundation. An irregular elongated window pierces the massive back wall. Designed with the help of a computer, the rippled window frame echoes the contours of some of the rough stones that adorn the building.

The main structure also features an atrium rising the full height of the building. Among other amenities are a library, an auditorium, information and education areas, a cafe and a bookstore. One of the lower levels contains permanent installations of works by Robert Gober and Katharina Fritsch.

While the Schaulager's facilities will be open year-round by request only, it will present one or two public exhibitions per year. The venue's inaugural show is a Dieter Roth retrospective organized by Schaulager director Theodora Vischer. The exhibition travels to New York's MOMA QNS and P.S. I Mar. 11-June 7, 2004.

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