01.04. - 27.08.2023

Homo Urbanus – A Citymatographic Odyssey by Bêka & Lemoine

Opening: 31/3/2023, 7 PM

For fifteen years now, Bêka & Lemoine have been investigating how people relate to space: how they inhabit it, how they appropriate it, and how they shape it. Their extensive, and still ongoing, film project ‘Homo Urbanus’ depicts the peculiar species of the urban dweller by exploring the daily life of ten world cities.
Shot with sensorial vitality and unusual proximity, these films question how the built environment affects human behavior by framing, ordering, and directing the way we collectively make use of space in the city. Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine devote particular attention to moments of vulnerability, exposing fragilities and tensions, as well as our remarkable ability to adapt to an environment in which power, efficiency, and competitiveness are increasingly dominant values.
At the S AM, ‘Homo Urbanus’ unfolds as a dérive through different space-time sequences at the rhythm of a continuously rearranging urban symphony. Following the same notion of spontaneous encounters that guided the making of these films, the exhibition is an invitation to experience the city as an unpredictable organism in perpetual movement and metamorphosis.

Admission: 
CHF 12.-, red. CHF 8.-. Pay once, visit twice. The receipt qualifies you for free entry upon your next visit. Please retain the document and present it during your next visit. Only valid for the exhibition ‘Homo Urbanus’.

Camping Sunny Side × Homo Urbanus
In an event on August 24 at 7 pm, S AM and Hotel Regina talked about their observations on campsites around Basel, climate change as an amplifier of social inequality, and the work of the collective. In addition, the S AM documented camping as a cultural heritage for future generations: Hotel Regina collected objects and their stories, making them accessible as multimedia dossiers to the public: campingsunnyside.hotelregina.org

The project by S AM in cooperation with Theater Basel is supported by:
SKKG
Stiftung für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte
 

Photos:
Exhibition Views © Tom Bisig
Homo Urbanus Rabatius © Bêka & Lemoine
Homo Urbanus Tokyoitus © Bêka & Lemoine
Homo Urbanus Petroburgumus © Bêka & Lemoine​
 
 

 

Press material (German, English): here
Exhibition flyer: here

The Exhibition ‘Homo Urbanus – A Citymatographic Odyssey by Bêka & Lemoine’ is supported by:

Exhibition Partner:
GGG Basel
Basler Stiftung Bau und Kultur

Exhibition Supporters:
Stiftung Schweizerische Schule für Blindenführhunde Allschwil
SURPRISE

Partner Event Program:
LINA, the European architecture platform
Das Creative-Europe-Programm der Europäischen Union

Upcoming exhibitions

19.09.2026 - 03.01.2027

Tony Fretton: Practice

Opening: 18/9/2026, 7 PM

The S AM Swiss Architecture Museum is proud to announce PRACTICE, a retrospective exhibition of selected projects of architect Tony Fretton (b. 1945, London). He established Tony Fretton Architects in London in 1984, which ran until 2024. His published texts on architecture are numerous, and he has taught extensively, including as Chair of Interiors Buildings and Cities at the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft, and as guest professor at GSD Harvard, ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne. He lives and works in London.

Fretton’s buildings and projects are presented at S AM through texts, photographs and drawings. Together, they show Fretton’s practice as continuity of reflection on the existing environment, including the social, cultural and political dimensions of the city and what lies outside it.