From the owner: Afrikanische Kunst African Art…read moreArt d'Afrique Tribal Art

Constant banging, ringing bells, and clattering sounds, the Museum Tinguely features the works of…read moreSwiss artist Jean Tinguely. Famous for kinetic sculptures, some of them are quite small and many are massive complex installations with many moving parts. With anything that moves, they are constantly breaking down. The museum does everything possible to ensure the longest life of these artworks. They do not run constantly, instead there are pedals or buttons to push that will activate the sculptures. It was a quiet and rainy Tuesday afternoon so the museum was not at all busy. This gave me nearly exclusive access to the artworks and the small theatre. I particularly enjoyed the movie showing the falling and crashing fluorescent lights. You can expect to spend at least two hours here. Don't miss the upside-down biplane hanging from the ceiling or the fountain in the courtyard! [Review 21233 overall - 81 in Switzerland - 198 of 2024.]

This is without a doubt the strangest museum I have ever been to. In Basel we visited Tinguely…read moreFountain. It's a fountain filled with the craziest contraptions that are almost like perpetual motion machines. They're moving iron sculptures that continuously loop through a short range of motion so it looks like they're walking, bobbing, etc. It was intriguing enough to make me want to visit the museum devoted to the works of this artist. If you have a Basel City Pass (which our hotel provided for free) you can use it to get half off of the admission price. I was not prepared for how large the museum was. I was expecting a little place but this museum is enormous! It houses everything from Tinguely's low-tech earlier works (like a moving hammer that keeps smashing a stuffed animal) to huge contraptions. You can even walk inside the machine with a carousel horse attached to it. It was really interesting reading about this artist and how he came to such prominence. With such strange art exhibits it's not a surprise that the layout of this museum is also strange. That's not necessarily a good thing. For some reason the section at the beginning with the majority of printed signs that tell about Tinguely's history isn't air conditioned. There is a roof to provide shade but it still felt like a sauna and was quite uncomfortable. After that you go through some glass doors and the rest of the experience is air conditioned. Why? Also once you wind your way to the innermost part of the museum we were quite surprised to find that you hit a dead end. You have to backtrack all the way back to get out. Really strange design but I guess not surprising. This was a fun visit that definitely gave us something to talk about!