Sounds Nice

During Art Basel, from 19 to 21 June 2026, «Sounds Nice» will transform the concert hall into a walk-in soundscape featuring sound, images, sculpture, and performative and self-playing installations. Ten selected works invite visitors to linger or even interact with them, creating a dialogue between space, sound and the body.

The opening takes place on Friday 19 June 2026. The works will then be accessible daily until 21 June 2026. The closing event will take place on 21 June 2026 as part of the Gare du Nord Summer Festival.

For «Sounds Nice», Gare du Nord is launching an open call for sound art works in the Greater Basel area.

Artists and works
Audrey Pouliquen – «limbs of ants, in infinity.»
Inspired by a fragment by Blaise Pascal, the work explores perception, distance and the experience of approaching a landscape. The sound installation immerses listeners in an imagined micro-world of crawling, buzzing and rubbing sounds.

Esther Hiepler – «Fliessband»
«Fliessband» is a large-scale ink drawing on long paper strips. Through repetition, variation and flowing ink, rhythmic patterns emerge that evoke musical scores, notation systems and sound structures.

Luca Zeller – «Triple Bass»
«Triple Bass» merges a monumental cinema loudspeaker with the body of a double bass to create a hybrid sound object. Deep frequencies, drone and vibration make sound physically tangible, generating a dense, almost cosmic atmosphere.

Lila Prat-Sordes & Noé Baker – «wax sculpture with soundscape»
The installation combines a wax sculpture of a fawn with an ambient soundscape. It imagines a speculative world in which nature and animals react to human destruction through transformation and mutation.

Markus Aebersold – «Untitled (O.L. I)»
Three vibrating metal plates make sound physically tangible. Electrical signals are translated directly into movement, creating a composition shaped by material, resonance and frequency.

Noel Schmidlin – «MeTimeMachine»
This interactive sound installation invites visitors to create music in complete isolation. «MeTimeMachine» exaggerates the idea of “me time” and creates an intimate analogue sound space beyond digital self-presentation.

Samuel Tschudin – Bass-Automat from the project «Schaltungsquintett»
The «Bass-Automat» reacts to shadow and movement: when a beam of light is interrupted, the sound sculpture begins to move. Minimal gestures are transformed into deep, percussive sounds in space.

Sébastien Vaillancourt – «Overengineered»
«Overengineered» explores the moment when technical imitation turns into transformation. Shaped like a tree, the sculpture functions as an antenna, emitting an invisible electromagnetic field that visitors can translate into sound using pickups.

Susan Fankhauser – «BEINGS»
The silver-glossy beings oscillate between creature, relic and futuristic object. Together, they create a poetic space between myth, memory and speculative future.

Theodore Otis Flach/Belarmín Cremonini/Lia Sauser – «CORD»
«CORD» is an interactive sound installation in which visitors shape different soundscapes by pulling on objects. Movement, sound and collaboration merge into a shared musical experience.

Click here for the full programme: → Gare du Nord Summer Festival.

Info

Opening hours for Sounds Nice:

Fri 19 Jun, 4.00 pm–8.00 pm
Sat 20 Jun, 11.00 am–5.00 pm
Sun 21 Jun, 10.00 am–7.00 pm

Vernissage: Fri 19 Jun, 5.30 pm

Finissage: Sun 21 Jun, 3.30 pm
As part of the Gare du Nord → Summer Festival