If you believe Sven Eisenhut, the size of the booths for his photo fair was determined during the invitation to dinner at a gallery owner in Paris.
Look, she showed him her kitchen, twelve square meters is enough.
This is how the size of the booths for “photo basel” was created, barely more than five minutes' walk away from Art Basel and yet worlds apart.
The fair was held for the first time in 2015 with eighteen galleries, and this year 37 came - mainly from Switzerland, Germany and France, plus some from Eastern Europe.
Gradually it is getting tight in the Volkshaus, where all the same white bunks stick together like honeycombs.
“It's over at 42,” says Eisenhut.
He couldn't get any more.
However, the familiar atmosphere that characterizes the sales show could not take any more.
Freddy Langer
Editor in the features section, responsible for the "Reiseblatt".
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Mostly contemporary photography is presented, supplemented here and there by classics of photo reportage such as fashion photography from the post-war period.
The offer reflects the wide-ranging interests of a young generation of photo artists across all genres as well as the numerous possibilities that the medium offers - from experiments with printing techniques from the 19th century to elaborate digital collages of strange figures or sublime landscapes.
What is striking is the large number of large, sometimes wall-filling prints, which are lavishly framed and have often been reworked - torn, pasted or wrinkled - in order to give them the character of an object.
While the prices for photographs at Art Basel have long been in the six and even seven-digit range, they remain moderate here.
Sven Eisenhut says quite unpretentiously that the groups of visitors to the two trade fairs only overlapped to a small extent.
He describes the offer in the Volkshaus as "entry-level art drugs".
For the gallery owner, on the other hand, his mother brings cakes from her nearby café in the evening.
Until September 26th. Day ticket 20.80 francs.