Arab Bank Switzerland · Basel Social Club · Basel

BANKABLE

15 – 21 June 2025 · Room B12 · 2pm – midnight

CENTS by Rutherford Chang was shown in BANKABLE, presented by Arab Bank Switzerland and curated by Nina Roehrs, during Art Basel week 2025. The room was one of more than a hundred at Basel Social Club, which that year took over the former private bank Vontobel on Rittergasse, Basel’s oldest street.

The BANKABLE poster: the word BANKABLE in red across a white band on a red field, with address, room, dates, curator and the artist list — The exhibition poster, presented by Arab Bank Switzerland

Exhibition: BANKABLE
Presented by: Arab Bank Switzerland
Curator: Nina Roehrs
Dates: 15 – 21 June 2025
Venue: Basel Social Club, Rittergasse 21–25, Basel
Room: B12
Sovrn work: CENTS, Rutherford Chang

The year on the coin

Basel Social Club took its 2025 theme from the language of finance and exchange — systems of value, commerce and trade — and set it inside an actual disused bank. BANKABLE answered with a room of works about money: Damien Hirst’s The Currency, a slot machine that pays out from real wallets, transaction lines drawn between addresses.

The CENTS hung there were struck in 1971 — the year the United States left the gold standard and money became a purely abstract construct. In a show about what makes a thing bankable, the coins on the wall were the ones minted at the moment value came loose from metal.

CENTS at BANKABLE

A grid of copper cents shown obverse, each face differently worn and toned — Obverses

The same grid of cents shown reverse — Reverses

Cents minted in 1971, from CENTS by Rutherford Chang, as installed at BANKABLE.

A tour of the room

Nina Roehrs walks the collection of Arab Bank Switzerland as it was hung at Basel Social Club, ending at the CENTS wall.

Curator’s tour with Nina Roehrs · 3 min 41 s

Exhibiting artists

0xfffKevin AboschRobert AliceJack ButcherMitchell F. ChanRutherford ChangDistributed GallerySarah FriendDamien HirstDavid HorvitzJonas LundSarah MeyohasRhea MyersAnna Ridler & David PfauPaul Seidler

Basel Social Club

A hall of the former bank: stucco ceiling, lantern, green-carpeted stair and works hung on the walls — Inside the former Vontobel bank · Photo: The Art Newspaper

In its fourth edition Basel Social Club inhabited the former private bank Vontobel in the centre of Grossbasel, spanning more than a hundred rooms and turning the building into a tableau vivant. It was the first to open those premises to the public, marking the start of the building’s activation by FOR ART, Klaus Littmann’s project to revive the vacant property on Rittergasse through to the end of 2028.

Rooms ran from a working blood bank to spaces for jewellery, beauty, wellness and games, with durational performances throughout. Admission was free and open to all.

Basel Social Club 2025 ↗CENTS ↗ABS collection ↗

Venue photographs courtesy of The Art Newspaper. Rutherford Chang, CENTS, 2017–2024, shown in BANKABLE, presented by Arab Bank Switzerland and curated by Nina Roehrs, room B12, Basel Social Club, Rittergasse 21–25, Basel, 15–21 June 2025. A curated collection on sovrn.art.