Two visions collide at Art Basel: AI and the city itself

(17 Jun 2026) ASSOCIATED PRESS Basel, Switzerland - 16 June 2026 1. Pan from ‘Green Screen’ (2023) by Hito Steyerl to crowd at the opening of Art Basel’s digital art exhibition, Zero 10 2. Wide of ‘Green Screen’ 3. One of sixteen pieces in a series called‘Meltdown’ (2023-26) by Andreas Gysin 4. Various of another in the same series 5. One of many pieces from ‘Sightings’ (2026) by Jan Robert Leegte 6. Another artwork from ‘Sightings’ ASSOCIATED PRESS Basel, Switzerland - 15 June 2026 7. Co-Curator of Zero 10, Trevor Paglen, heading into the exhibition space 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Trevor Paglen, Co-Curator of Zero 10 “I'm interested in art that speaks to the moment that we live in, like in history. And the moment that we live in is thoroughly digital. There's more digital cameras than there are human eyeballs. There's thousands of times more transistors than there are insects. We're made out of digital stuff. That's the condition that we're in. So to me, obviously, artists are going to respond to that. Artists are going to live in that, are going to try to see what that looks like to make work that embodies that reality.” ASSOCIATED PRESS Basel, Switzerland - 16 June 2026 9. Pan across triptych of works by John Gerrard 10. Detail of the final piece 11. SOUNDBITE (English) John Gerrard, artist: “So this is a work called Flare, an artwork called Flare. It could be considered an alarm for the burning present. We are entering a time of climate change, climate heating, and this is an alarm for the heating ocean and for really how climate change can destabilise the nation state.” 12. Memo Akten and Katie Hofstadter’s ‘Boundaries’ (2024) ASSOCIATED PRESS Basel, Switzerland - 15 June 2026 13. SOUNDBITE (English) Trevor Paglen, Co-Curator of Zero 10: “I think the big challenge for me is, you know, in the exhibition we're curating a pretty deep history of digital art. You're going back to the 1950s, and I'm including a lot of artists that aren't, you know, normally understood as digital art, as someone like Andreas Gursky, he’s a famous photographer, but all the images are very much digitally fabricated. You don't know what part of the image is from a photograph versus a retouching versus a... And so to me, that is really interesting, and that's like the spirit that I wanted to curate within.” ASSOCIATED PRESS Basel, Switzerland - 16 June 2026 14. Tilt down of ‘Ocean V’ (2010) by Andreas Gursky 15. Detail of same 16. Various of Kenneth C. Knowlton & Leon Harman’s ‘Computer Nude (Studies in Perception I)' (1966-67) 17. Pan from screen showing early computer art to crowd at exhibition opening 18. Eli Scheinman, digital art strategist, walking across gallery floor 19. SOUNDBITE (English) Eli Scheinman, digital art strategist: “The NFT hype cycle was ultimately unproductive to the advancement of some artists' practices who are using those technologies. But the reality is that blockchains are one of the tools at the disposal of artists today and at Zero 10, and in this space, there are a few artists whose ideas and concepts are best expressed on the blockchain.” 20. Tilt down from Gene Kogan’s NFT ‘Abraham #309’ (2021/2026) to ‘Abraham #1087’ (2021/2026) 21. Physical and digital art by Uzbek artist Aziza Kadyri 22. Kadyri moving her hand across the responsive material which creates patterns on the screen behind 23. Artist DEAFBEEF explaining one of his works to a buyer 24. Part of DEAFBEEF’s series of works ‘Matter and Signal’ (2021-2026) 26. Mid of her hands on the console 27. Avery Singer’s ‘Shit Coin Maxi’ (2025) ASSOCIATED PRESS Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...