How to transport a place as special as Basel to another place as special as Paris?
For those that have never been, Basel is the most likeable small town with a big city culture vibe. You ride around on the excellent public transport or float in the summer down the river, have the highest density of museums per square footage anywhere, eat wonderful food and for those interested in all things art: it is the birthplace of the mothership of all art fairs: Art Basel in 1970.
A LOT has happened since, and we witnessed the inception of Art Basel Hong Kong, Miami and this year for the first time under this name: Art Basel Paris.
Together with Basel Tourism we decided to host two magnificent events, similar to a wedding choreography, an evening of drinks and merriment where you got to meet old friends, make new ones and indulge in French delicacies such as fresh Oysters from the Brittany Coast, Truffled Croque Monsieur and drink exceptional French wines, and a morning-after Champagne breakfast with the first preview day of Art Basel in the newly renovated Grand Palais in between.
Matisse at the Fondation Beyeler
Since Basel is famous for its outstanding museums we chose the Fondation Beyeler and its newly opening Matisse show “L’invitation au Voyage” as our guiding star for the evening event. Wonderfully their curator Raphaël Bouvier agreed to join us in Paris for a talk. As our location we secured the Le 1905, a speak-easy style, traditional Parisian Jazz Bar on the first floor above and part of the famous “Vins de Pyrénées”, a wine shop with a long and winding history in the street in which Baudelaire, whose poem “L’invitation au Voyage” gave the exhibition its title, used to have his apartment.
We rounded off the event by a performance of the poem by Ryohei Ozaki, and spend the evening engulfed in conversations, great food and quite a few made plans to see the show in Basel after listening to Raphaël engaging descriptions of the curatorial concept and rarity of the works shown.
Les Trois Rois in Collaboration with Galerie Chloé Perrin
Most of us can only dream to actually stay at the famous Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois, but some of us have found ourselves late one Basel night at its world famous bar. So again we were thrilled to have them on board for an exclusive Champagne breakfast at the incredible Jef Banc show at Galerie Chloé Perrin.
The feast served by Chef Simon Auscher following a Swiss theme, celebrated the famous foods of the Alpine Country and a guided tour of the show rounded off the morning. Apart from the galerist, both the wife and daughter of the late painter were in attendance and mark our words, we will see big museums shows in the coming years celebrating his oeuvre.
We loved working with our partners Basel Tourism, Switzerland Tourism, the Fondation Beyeler, Les Trois Rois and Galerie Chloé Perrin and thank them all for the magnificent collaboration!
A loving collaboration brought to you by the above.
