Bass by steve mcqueen at Schaulager Basel
Steve McQueen presents Bass (2024) at Schaulager in Basel, an immersive color and sound installation with over a thousand LED light tubes. One of the acclaimed British artist and Oscar-winning filmmaker’s most abstract works to date, the exhibition stages the light and sound that distinguishes Steve McQueen’s artistic practice. The installation was co-commissioned by the Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, and Dia Art Foundation in New York and remains at Schaulager Basel between June 15th and November 16th, 2025. Inside the museum, light and sound congregate as deep bass frequencies resound through the space, transitioning to and from loud and soft reverbs as individual notes or melodies. The interior is bathed in Steve McQueen’s Bass, a series of colored light tubes that change slowly, from deep red to ultraviolet, covering the entire spectrum visible to the human eye.
In the vast interior of Schaulager Basel, over a thousand LED light tubes are temporarily installed in the architecture’s ceiling, spanning across the building’s five levels, including the soaring atrium. A column of subwoofers and speakers is suspended in the air in the middle of the installation, and from here, the bass frequencies travel through, shifting slowly alongside the deep hues of colored light tubes. ‘What I love about light and sound is that they are both created through movement and fluidity. They can be molded into any shape, like vapor or a scent; they can sneak into every nook and cranny. I also love the beginning point where something isn’t a form as much as it is all-encompassing,’ says the British artist and filmmaker.
Steve McQueen, Bass, 2024, LED Light and Sound, courtesy the artist, co-commissioned work by Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, and Dia Art Foundation, Schaulager® Münchenstein/Basel (Installation view) | all images courtesy of Schaulager Basel, photos by Pati Grabowicz, © Steve McQueen
Basslines inspired by the cycle of colored light
In 2022, the Laurenz Foundation and the Dia Art Foundation invited Steve McQueen to design a project that would first be shown in New York and then at Schaulager Basel. When the artist walked into the cavern-like, lower-level space at Dia Beacon, he decided he would work with light and sound instead of a film, resonating with the cellar-like space devoid of daylight. He felt that it was destined to accommodate an immersive work where the installation would interact with the architecture. ‘There is a commonality in the bass, the vibration, the reverb, and the tone. It seems like a calling, an interplay, a form of communication between scattered people. For me it was a way of bringing a diaspora back together,’ says Steve McQueen. From here, Bass took shape.
The starting point is the basslines. The artist worked with the renowned bassist Marcus Miller, who in turn involved four other musicians, to create the composition of Bass. The intergenerational group from the Black diaspora met at Dia Beacon in January 2024 and started improvising, inspired by the cycle of colored light that was already installed. The recording of the musicians’ session became the score of Bass, heard through speakers placed throughout the exhibition space at Schaulager Basel. In this score, the clarity of Marcus Miller’s jazz bass intertwines with the plucking and bowing sounds created by Laura-Simone Martin and her acoustic upright bass. Mamadou Kouyaté’s bright, driving rhythms on the traditional bass ngoni are joined by the deep droning sounds of Aston Barrett Jr.’s barely plucked electric bass, while the same instrument in Meshell Ndegeocello’s hands produces sonical textures.
Steve McQueen presents Bass at Schaulager in Basel, a light, color, and sound installation
expansive oceanic frequencies lasting around three hours
Music and sound have been a consistent theme throughout Steve McQueen’s works. Many of his award-winning films feature soundtracks that transform the visual experience into something multi-sensory and physical. This effect filters through the artist’s masterful use of light and color, too. At Schaulager Basel, Bass presents an immediate, dynamic interplay between light, color, and sounds, slowly deconstructing our perceptions of time and space. The feeling resembles being submerged in a sonic ocean, where visitors are enveloped by bass frequencies, deep currents, and intense hues. These expansive oceanic frequencies, lasting around three hours, are woven together with the entire color spectrum, presented in a roughly thirty-minute cycle.
‘Bass could travel anywhere because it’s about light and sound. It could be an amalgamate, it can morph in any space because it’s about light and sound anywhere,’ says Steve McQueen. The colored light appears mythical and transient, despite the slow progression of the transition. Even so, the effect is immediate and physical, drawing sensations of warmth and cold, expansion and contraction. This fluidity continues; Steve McQueen’s sound, light, and color installation at Schaulager Basel has no clear beginning or end, no specific viewpoint or focal point. Instead, visitors find their own sense of orientation and place within the experience. Steve McQueen’s installation Bass is present at Schaulager Basel in time for Art Basel Week 2025, between June 15th and November 16th.
the installation was co-commissioned by the Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, and Dia Art Foundation
inside the museum, light and sound congregate as deep bass frequencies resound through the space
a column of subwoofers and speakers is suspended in the air in the middle of the installation
the bass frequencies travel through, shifting slowly alongside the deep hues of colored light tubes
in the vast interior of Schaulager Basel, over a thousand light tubes are temporarily installed
the light tubes span across the building’s five levels, including the soaring atrium
Bass presents an immediate, dynamic interplay between light, color, and sounds
the expansive oceanic frequencies, lasting around three hours, are woven together with the entire color spectrum
the installation remains on site until November 16th, 2025
project info:
installation: Bass, 2024
artist: Steve McQueen | @stevemcqueen
commission: Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, Dia Art Foundation | @schaulagerbasel, @diaartfoundation
location: Ruchfeldstrasse 19, 4142 Münchenstein, Switzerland
dates: June 15th and November 16th, 2025
photography: Pati Grabowicz | @patigrabowicz
music
concept, producer, and arranger: Steve McQueen
bandleader, producer, and arranger: Marcus Miller
composed and performed by: Steve McQueen, conductor; Marcus Miller, electric bass; Meshell Ndegeocello, electric bass; Aston Barrett Jr., electric bass; Mamadou Kouyaté, bass ngoni; Laura-Simone Martin, upright bass
recording and sound design: Paolo Brandi
recording assistant: Jonny Taylor
video technician and artist assistant: Sue MacDiarmid
bass at schaulager
senior curator: Heidi Naef
planning and installation: Yvo Hartmann
art education: Andreas Blättler
publications: Isabel Friedli, Elsa Himmer
conservation: Marcus Broecker
development: Donna De Salvo
curatorial assistant: Emily Markert
manager of exhibition technology: Randy Gibson
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