“Art is a way of bringing people together”, writes Gerhard Mack recalling the story of Art Basel, since the first show – in 1970, to present.

The 45th edition of the most important art fair in the world closed on Sunday, after six days of success and great optimism: the visitors were 92,000 (an increase, compared to 2013, which had already counted a record of about 86,000 admissions), the exhibitors were 285, from 34 different countries.
In the halls and in the eight main sections, the gallery owners met with collectors, critics, art lovers and buyers who come from all over the world to see what’s new in the art field and the market trends.
Positive signals came also from the sales: the chatted self-portrait “Fright Wig”, by Andy Warhol, has been sold for about 35 million dollars; another success has been an inflatable dolphin by Jeff Koons, bought for 5 millions.

Omnipresent was the kinetic art by Alexander Calder, with his Mobiles sculptures of different sizes and Giuseppe Penone’s Arte Povera, with his thorned canvases and the huge work of 50 meters “Life and Limb” presented in the open spaces of Art Unlimited. Alongside the big names also stand out the emerging galleries thanks to Statements section, moved to the Hall 2 in order to give to young owners and artists the right space on the show.

The most successful event seemed to be 14Rooms in Hall 3, fourteen Live Art areas where works by artists such as Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono and Santiago Serra investigated the physicality and the space in relation to the visitor. The project has been realized in collaboration with the Fondation Beyeler and Theater Basel.
Leaving the paths of Art Basel, the city that hosts the fair offers many other exhibitions and events worthy of note: I AM NOT YOU by Kristof Kintera at the Museum Tinguely is, according to Artribune magazine, the best show among those presented during the fair. An assembly of works which symbolize the everyday life into an irreverent key, ranging from a beer-cans-made palm to a destroyed H & M collection up to bags of cement piled up vertically: direct and immediate artworks and installations that seem to be connected with the interactive sculptures by Jean Tinguely, very appreciated also by the younger visitors.