Since its inauguration in 2003, Schaulager has become an important player in the local and international art world. Based on the unique and unprecedented idea of bridging the gap between museum and storage, the institution is entirely dedicated to preserving original works of art, ensuring their conservation, and making them accessible for teaching and research. School classes, groups of university students, researchers, and other visitors from all over the world daily take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy and study the collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation.

After twenty years, the Laurenz Foundation, which funds Schaulager, has decided to plan an extension to house specific groups of works from the steadily growing collection. The focus will be on works rarely loaned out or presented at the Basel Kunstmuseum Gegenwart because of their volume and spatial requirements. Two such works by Robert Gober and Katharina Fritsch have already found a permanent home in the existing building. The new building will house works and groups of works of comparable spatial and installative complexity, such as Plötzlich diese Übersicht (Suddenly This Overview (1981–2012), a substantial body of clay sculptures by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, and voluminous sculptures by Matthew Barney.

In addition, the extension will provide space for time-based media works of the kind presented in Schaulager’s exhibition “Out of the Box” (2023), whose spatial requirements and installation are often equally complex. Many media works acquired for the collection in recent years have rarely or never been presented to the public since. Even the existing building has neither the space nor the technology to meet the needs of such works. As a result, recent works of art acquired because their contemporary concerns are deemed relevant for the collection, cannot be made accessible for research and art education. These minclude David Claerbout’s Wildfire (meditation on fire), 2019–2020; Bruce Nauman’s Contrapposto Studies, i through vii, 2015/2016; and Tacita Dean’s Paradise (from “The Dante Project”), 2021.

In the new extension, these works will be installed on a rotating basis and made accessible to the public during limited opening hours. However, as in the existing Schaulager, the focus will be on research and education for art professionals and special groups, as well as experts on art conservation. The current Schaulager will continue to host temporary exhibitions for the general public at irregular intervals, accompanied by scholarly catalogues and art education programs. The highly specialized reference library for on-site research will also remain in this building.

The Laurenz Foundation commissioned the architectural office Herzog & de Meuron, who built the existing premises, to work out a preliminary study. It forms the basis of the present project. The exterior of the planned building will be similar in appearance with façades made of material excavated on site, and the two buildings will be connected internally for logistical purposes.