On May 22, 2025, the world commemorated the 100th birthday of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991). To celebrate, his inventive, whimsical, and still-relevant body of work will be honored globally through various exhibitions and events. One highlight is Scream Machines at Museum Tinguely in Basel, a large-scale installation by British artist Rebecca Moss and Swiss artist Augustin Rebetez. Built around a ghost train over 90 years old, this immersive artwork takes visitors on a captivating journey through a dynamic artistic landscape. The installation pays tribute to Le Crocrodrome de Zig et Puce, a 1977 collaborative piece by Tinguely, Bernhard Luginbühl, Daniel Spoerri, and Niki de Saint Phalle, created for the Centre Pompidou’s opening in Paris.
For the Pompidou’s 1977 debut, the artists crafted Le Crocrodrome de Zig et Puce, a massive walk-in sculpture featuring a custom ghost train, rods, wheels, a marble run, glowing signage, a ‘Musée Sentimental,’ and a chocolate-covered crocodile leg. To honor Tinguely’s centennial, Museum Tinguely is reimagining this concept by transforming the historic Wiener Prater Geisterbahn, a 1935 ghost train long featured at the Basel Autumn Fair, delighting generations of riders.
Rebecca Moss and Augustin Rebetez have designed a unique course for this Tinguely-inspired ghost train, blending their original creations with new elements. The art ghost train will run from May 22 (Tinguely’s birthday) to August 30 (Tinguely’s death anniversary) 2025 in Solitude Park, outside Museum Tinguely, during museum hours. A ride costs 4 CHF. Opening times during Art Basel 2025: 9 am – 7 pm.
In the telephone booth of the museum, the smallest exhibition space in the building, a selection of humorous short films by Rebecca Moss is also presented.
Rebecca Moss
Rebecca Moss (b. 1991) lives and works in London and Essex. The young, up-and-coming artist uses humor and a penchant for the absurd to create installative arrangements in which she primarily places herself in precarious situations. For her slapstick and experimental arrangements, she makes use of everyday popular materials and images, which she activates in an inventive but often banal way. Her penchant for improvisation invites chance to collaborate. We enjoy watching this playful failure and recognize ourselves in our everyday, futile striving – a striving that we encounter as well in Tinguely’s useless poetry-producing machine sculptures.
Augustin Rebetez
Augustin Rebetez (b. 1986) lives and works in Mervelier. He is one of the most important and independent Swiss artists of his generation. His Maison Totale in Bôle has been open to visitors since summer 2024. It is a total work of art in which his fantastic visual worlds, creatures, totems, punk videos, music, dance, theater and interactive installations invite visitors on a walk-in tour. In 2016, he was a guest at the Museum Tinguely in the exhibition Prière de toucher with a large-format, walk-in installation that invited visitors to participate.
By the way: a non-profit association dedicated to the preservation of the over 90-year-old ghost train is still looking for members and donations: wiener-prater-geisterbahn.ch
Scream Machines – Art Ghost Train by Rebecca Moss and Augustin Rebetez at Museum Tinguely in Basel (Switzerland). May 21/22, 2025.
