For the third edition of the “Globus Public Art Project,” Swiss artist Urs Fischer, based in Los Angeles, activates not only the renovation facade of the “Globus” department store but also several locations in its vicinity, from the historic market square to the so-called “Totehüsli,” a former ossuary linked to a church. Curated by Samuel Leuenberger, Urs Fischer’s project is titled Skinny Sunrise. Internationally renowned for his incisive, often provocative sculptures and installations, Fischer references the medieval Basel Dance of Death in this exhibition project—an iconographic symbol of transience that underscores the omnipresence of death in life. His works engage with this motif, translating it into a contemporary artistic language that confronts viewers with their own mortality. Alongside his self-portrait in candle wax, bronze skeleton sculptures—partly inspired by art history and contemporary visual culture—as well as a newly created piece for the department store facade are presented.
As part of the three-year renovation of the iconic department store at Basel’s historic market square, Globus, in collaboration with the Fondation Beyeler, invites artists to create site-specific artworks. Following projects by Claudia Comte and Julian Charrière in the previous two years, Urs Fischer’s “Skinny Sunrise” forms the crowning conclusion of the series.
The exhibition project is curated by Basel-based curator Samuel Leuenberger and spans three locations around the Basel Globus this year. On the market square itself, the artist presents the bronze sculpture Invisible Mother, 2015, a fountain featuring a skeleton lying on a chair, with water spraying through a garden hose—a closed cycle that flows endlessly, reflecting both the absurdity and the persistence of life.
At the Globus facade, Fischer showcases the new production Eternity, 2023, a large-scale billboard evoking an earlier era: it displays a still from a 1940s film noir, overlaid with a glaring, oversized strip of bacon—a humorous collision where nostalgia and digital imagery intertwine.
In the so-called “Totehüsli” on the Münster hill, a former ossuary linked to the Martinskirche, now part of Globus and used as a temporary art space, Fischer’s renowned wax self-portrait Untitled, 2011, depicts him sitting at a table. Once lit, the sculpture slowly melts, providing a striking metaphor for the themes of decay and the passage of time. The intimate presentation in the former ossuary is complemented by other well-known works by Fischer from prestigious international art collections: Undigested Sunset, 2001/02, Violent Cappuccino, 2007, and Mildew & Dew, 2022.
Urs Fischer (*1973, Zurich; lives and works in Los Angeles) enjoys worldwide recognition for his multifaceted sculptures and installations, often infused with absurd humor and audacity. His artistic language revolves thematically around transience, physical decay, and the unsettling coexistence of sublimity and decline.
Among his most iconic motifs is the skeleton—not merely as a solemn reminder of mortality, but as a vibrant, ironic figure within a broader engagement with the theme of impermanence. These skeleton figures, often inspired by art history or contemporary visual culture, take on anthropomorphic traits: they smoke, juggle objects, or stumble about with awkward charm. Through these gestures, Fischer transforms philosophical reflection into something tangible and playfully disarming—yet always with an undercurrent of unease.
True to his experimental approach, Fischer’s sculptural works rarely feel static. Many are wax casts, others appear fragile but are made of cast bronze. The former are designed to slowly dissolve when lit; the latter seem delicate but are destined for eternal life. In this way, Fischer challenges the traditional notion of sculpture as a permanent object, proposing instead an art that reflects the transience of existence. The skeletons serve not only as symbols but as dynamic tools to explore the cycles of life, death, and artistic creation.
