_Art Basel’s ‘Meet the artists’ series presents contemporary creatives shaping today’s cultural landscape_
The Berlin-based sculptor on why great art resists the artist’s hand – and endures on its own terms
Nairy Baghramian makes sculptures that resist easy resolution – works that balance fragility against structure, humor against critique, and the artist’s hand against the autonomy of the object itself. Born in Iran and based in Berlin since the 1980s, she draws on architecture, design, and performance to question how objects relate to the spaces and people around them. ‘I understood very early on the difference between an artwork and the idea of a prop. A prop on the stage is the result of a narration. An artwork, however, contains the narration within itself,’ she says in the film. Throughout this episode of ‘Meet the artists’, she reveals a practice grounded not in mastery, but in curiosity – one that embraces the possibility of turning away from what is familiar to see it anew.
In 2025, Baghramian was named a Gold Awardee in the inaugural Art Basel Awards, which led to the commission of Modèle vivant (S’empilant),(2026), a large-scale site-responsive installation for the Messeplatz fountain in front of the Swiss fair. Conceived specifically for the public square, the work extends across the 60-meter-long fountain and incorporates a 48-meter sculptural bench that welcomes Art Basel visitors and residents alike to pause for a moment. The installation combines Baghramian’s signature biomorphic forms and geometric support structures to create what she describes in the film as ‘a release for the busy art audience’ – a place where people can simply rest, wait for a tram, or engage with the artwork on their own terms. The commission reflects her longstanding interest in the relationship between sculpture and site.
Nairy Baghramian is represented by Marian Goodman Gallery,Hauser & Wirth, and kurimanzutto. Her new installation, _Modèle vivant (S’empilant)_, is on view on the Messeplatz during Art Basel in Basel 2026.
Director Roshan Bayesteh
DOP Alex Brack
Editor & Colorist Hanno Mertin
Score Robert Dietz
Camera Operator Nicole Medvecka
Sound Recordist Mika Bretschneider
Mix & Master Studio Teiwas
Motion Designer Andi Stepanchuk
Production Company Targa Film
Assistant Producer Lena Schütte
Hair & Makeup Artist Vivien Berenice Mangin
Art Basel
Senior Editor Alicia Reuter
Creative Producer Akiel Gallina
Editorial Assistant Lama Yaghi
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