Monira Al Qadiri: BENZENE FLOAT

The foyer wall is covered up to the roof trusses in rainbow plastic: the folds and curves of an iridescent balloon, blown up far past life size against a black, speckled ground.

BENZENE FLOAT is Monira Al Qadiri's series of inflatables shaped like hydrocarbon molecules, the stuff refined out of crude oil. When a balloon from it hung here in 2024, the museum's text gave her reason for the colours: the sheen of raw oil, and the pearl diving that stopped in the Gulf once oil was found. Basel's chemical industry started out making dyes from coal tar, so a hydrocarbon in rainbow colours is something of a homecoming.

This is one wall, not a run of rooms. You meet it in the foyer before the galleries, so pair it with one of the shows inside. Entry is CHF 12, free for everyone under 26, and Thursdays run to 20:00.