From 14 to 17 June 2012 Art Basel was held for the 43rd time. For Basel museums and galleries, this fair is a great chance to invite an international audience. However, Schaulager found itself at a disadvantage: its building is now closed for renovation. The exit was the temporary satellite pavilion Schaulager Satellite, created specifically for the art fair by the Herzog & de Meuron bureau and designed to fill the lack of exhibition space.
The appeal to HdM is not accidental: the same bureau in 2003 built and
the main building of the Schaulager, a kind of "open storage" for the collection of contemporary art of the Emanuel Hoffmann-Stiftung Foundation, available for inspection and study.
The snow-white pavilion was located in front of the main building of the Messe Basel exhibition complex. The architects' handwriting is easily recognizable: the main volume of the "satellite" rests on three pillars, reminiscent of houses with a gable roof. Similar "quasi-houses" have more than once served as a module for architects: for example, in
VitraHouse in Vejle am Rhein.
The pavilion itself is close in plan to a triangle; the viewer enters it along a wide wooden staircase - immediately to the upper floor. Sunlight enters the halls with white walls and wooden floors through a central triangular opening in the roof. Showcases and screens were placed along the walls in the pavilion, on which it was possible to see models and images of the main building of the museum-reserve.
