Summe

∑-SUMME is an association of self-organized art initiatives and projects meant to strengthen synergies, discourse and visibility. In 2015, the collective Dr. Kuckucks Labrador founded and managed ∑-SUMME until it was handed over to the newly founded ∑-SUMME-Organisation in 2018. Since then, this association has maintained and expanded this network in Basel. It bundles and distributes information and organizes festivals and joint events for all the Off-Spaces.

Since its inception in 2015, a new city map with an accompanying program has been published for every ∑-SUMME festival in collaboration with A Roland for an Oliver, linking the participating spaces and projects.

In 2015, around 20 projects were presented at Villa Renata, itself an independent art space, under the name Σ-SUMME. At the same time, joint meetings were organized for the operators of the projects to exchange ideas. Afterwards, Kunstraum Schwarzwaldallee invited all spaces and projects to present themselves at the Basel Museum Night 2016.

In November 2016, a new presentation of the spaces under the name ∑-SUMME focused on a weekend, along the lines of the Museum Night, each project within its own four walls and with special opening hours and supporting events. Organized bike tours from room to room connected the public and project participants.

A joint opening took place in the Klingental exhibition space.

In 2017, the common framework for ∑-SUMME was an exploration of videos. Each room and each project was invited to explore the topic of video - in the broadest sense - in its own unique way. In addition, everyone submitted a video contribution of no more than ten minutes for the joint opening event in the Neues Kino.

In November 2018, the participating spaces and projects organized exhibitions during the two-week ∑-SUMME, which were communicated in a joint program with a city map. A joint opening took place in the Voltage studio and exhibition space.

Since 2018, ∑-SUMME has been organized by the association ∑-SUMME-Organisation.

The 5th ∑-SUMME was celebrated with an opening at the event location HUMBUG with a five-hour performance program followed by live musical acts. Thanks to the collaboration with PANCH (Performance Art Network CH), 16 performance artists from the region were given a stage. In addition, small tours took place, where interested parties could visit art spaces existing in proximity within the city.

The ∑-SUMME 2021 connected and publicized the participating cultural initiatives with a radio festival on RadioX. The art spaces and projects were each invited for an interview and were able to contribute curated segments to the program. There were also important discussions with actors from politics and the art scene. These events were accompanied by posters, printed matter and an online presence designed by A Roland for an Oliver.

In 2023, ∑-SUMME reinvented itself and integrated the online archive of A Roland for an Oliver into its activities. With a now larger team and the generous support of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, a new ∑-SUMME was launched that is even more participatory and informative. Alongside the continued organising of the Biennial ∑-SUMME event the new Website functions as a informative overview of all the various projects in and around Basel past and present.

Team

The SUMME team is organized as a collective. The team plans and organizes the internal networking events as well as a ∑-SUMME festival every two years. It is responsible for the conception, planning
fundraising and implementation of the internal events and festivals.

Thomas Heimann is an artist and drawing teacher. He taught at the Bern-Biel School of Design in 2004. He has been on the board of Ausstellungsraum Klingental since 2006 and has been responsible for its management in a 50% position since 2007

Lysann König lives and works in Basel as an artist, musician and curator. She has been the director of KASKO, a project space for contemporary art, performance and mediation in Basel, and co-founder of ∑-SUMME since 2021.

Till Langschied is a Basel-based artist, curator and GIF enthusiast. He studied in Düsseldorf, Basel and at the DutchArtInstitute. Till's artistic practice deals with the influence of technology on our everyday lives and how the digital increasingly determines our reality.

Laurie Mlodzik lives and works as an artist, fermenter and dancer in Basel. With a BA from Freiburg (DE) and MA from Basel, Mlodzik also studied at the Isadora Duncan International Institute in New York and has been dancing as part of their ensemble since 2012.

Yolanda Esther Natsch lives and works as an artist and curator in Basel and Bern. She works conceptually and likes to analyze structures and phenomena of the art world with texts, performances, videos and installations.

Raphael Reichert is a freelance visual artist and curator. He works in various positions for exhibition spaces, galleries, artists and institutions. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the HGK Basel in 2017, then studied art history and philosophy at the University of Basel and process design at the HGK Basel.

Chris Regn works as a conceptual artist with research, shows and videos, with the potential of tradition and forms of representation. She draws from her work with a large archive bildwechsel- Dachverband für Frauen Medien Kultur in Hamburg, as a curator with the Kaskadenkondensator in Basel and with various performance and artist groups such as Evi, Nic & C, Tischgespräche and the "Art+Feminism" - Wikipedia editing group who writes his_tory.

Ana Vujic is an artist, art historian and curator. She studied art history, media studies and education at the University of Basel and completed the MAS Curating at the ZHdK and CAS Cultural Management at the Department of Art and Design at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. She has managed the studio and exhibition space Voltage in Basel since 2017.

Ieva Zuklyte is a graphic designer, DJ and curator. She lives and works in Basel and Zurich. After completing her Master's degree in Visual Communication and Image Research in Basel, she launched her first curatorial projects. From 2021 she co-curated the Zabriskie Point in Geneva.