Basel Social Club returns for its fifth edition from June 14–20, 2026, transforming a vacant multi-story office building designed by Diener & Diener, just minutes from Basel SBB train station, into a temporary social stage for art, exchange, and experimentation.

This year’s edition reimagines the workplace not as a site of production, but as a space for critical reflection. In a world increasingly shaped by digitalization, remote work, and artificial intelligence, Basel Social Club explores evolving notions of labor, time, productivity, and rest through exhibitions, performances, music, gastronomy, and informal encounters.

Spanning multiple floors, the building itself becomes part of the curatorial framework. Its layered architecture and circulation routes evoke contemporary understandings of the “underground”,both as a space of cultural resistance and as a metaphor for the hidden structures and tensions of late capitalism.

Throughout the week, the venue remains continuously activated by artists responding directly to its architecture and atmosphere. A dedicated night program extends the experience into the late hours, while the “Out of Office” zone offers visitors a space for pause, retreat, and reflection.

Gastronomy plays a central role in the program, ranging from exclusive fine-dining experiences to accessible, locally developed culinary formats, reflecting the inclusive and community-driven spirit at the heart of Basel Social Club.

Dastan Gallery returns to Basel Social Club 2026 for its fourth participation, presenting works by Ardeshir Mohassess, Newsha Tavakolian, and Sina Shiri under the event’s theme, Office. The exhibition explores how labor, bureaucracy, authority, and social relations are enacted within workplaces and institutional environments in contemporary Iran.

Mohassess’s satirical drawings expose the absurdities and violence embedded in bureaucratic systems. Tavakolian’s early photographs reflect her experiences within Iranian newspapers and the role of journalism in shaping public memory and representation. Shiri’s photographs from Touching the Green Velvet focus on hotel interiors, revealing the invisible labor and class dynamics that sustain the appearance of comfort and luxury.

Together, the three artists approach the office not merely as a physical workplace but as a broader social condition where power, labor, and representation intersect, making visible the structures that organize everyday life.

Poster: Genti Korini