Art Basel and the Value of Making

Art Basel closed another successful edition this year. The headlines focused on strong sales, major collectors, museum attendance, and multimillion-dollar works changing hands. More than 90,000 visitors moved through the halls, alongside representatives from over 270 museums and foundations, reaffirming Basel's position as one of the most influential gatherings in the global art world.

Yet beyond the numbers, Basel continues to raise a more interesting question.

What separates an artwork from a designed object?

Walking through the fair, the distinction often feels less certain than the market would suggest. Sculptural furniture appears alongside contemporary art. Ceramics occupy the same visual territory as painting. Textiles leave the body and enter the gallery wall. The categories remain intact on paper, but increasingly blur in practice.

This tension feels particularly relevant today.

For generations, craft was often positioned as something functional, while art carried the language of authorship, uniqueness, and cultural value. Increasingly, contemporary makers are refusing that separation. Textile artists, ceramicists, jewellers, furniture designers, and material researchers are building practices that exist comfortably between disciplines.

Art Basel makes this visible at scale.

This year's edition reflected an art world that continues to expand beyond traditional mediums. Unlimited, curated for the first time by MoMA PS1's Ruba Katrib, brought together large-scale installations, immersive environments, performance, film, and sculpture. Elsewhere, Zero 10 made its European debut, highlighting digital and generative practices that challenge conventional definitions of artistic production altogether.

The city itself became part of the conversation. Through Parcours, site-specific installations extended into Basel's streets and public spaces, while museums across the region presented exhibitions ranging from Helen Frankenthaler and Pierre Huyghe to Cao Fei, Hella Jongerius, and Verner Panton. Together, they created a broader picture of contemporary culture - one where design, craft, technology, architecture, and art increasingly overlap.

What remains interesting for emerging designers is how these shifts affect the perception of making.

The object made by hand, the piece developed through material experimentation, the work that resists mass production - these qualities are increasingly valued across both design and art. Not because they are nostalgic, but because they offer something difficult to replicate: evidence of process, time, and individual perspective.

For a platform like HAY-HAY, Art Basel functions less as a market report and more as a cultural indicator. The fair reveals what institutions, collectors, and audiences are collectively paying attention to. This year, alongside established names and major sales, there was a growing appreciation for authorship, material knowledge, and work that sits between categories.

Perhaps that is the most interesting takeaway.

Not that art is becoming design, or design is becoming art. But that the boundaries separating them are becoming less important than the ideas, craftsmanship, and cultural value they share.

Credits: Lucine Ayanian