Art Basel is quite possibly the most prestigious art fair out there. While it takes place in Hong Kong and Miami as well, Basel is the original fair taking place every year.

The VIP opening of 2014 Basel show was on June 17th. Of the two tiers of VİP’s the First Choice VIP Card, which is even more selective than the Preview VIP card, allows access precisely at 11am. These selected few put fashion before comfort, as they are all very well dressed, ladies in high heels, brave gentlemen in purple pants etc. while rubbing shoulders at the opening of the fair. Timing is everything here, prominent collectors rush to the galleries and artworks they have in mind before another collector beats them to it.

With 285 galleries from 34 countries there was a lot to take in during Art Basel. The fair consisted of 8 different sectors: Galleries, Feature, Statements, Edition, Unlimited, Parcours, Film and Magazines. The Galleries section is the main part of the event and this year’s 14 Rooms was the second highlight. Galleries section in general has the world’s leading galleries displaying so many spectacular artworks that it becomes too much to digest all at once. Even when visiting the same area of the Galleries section a second time around, one discovers new artwork.

Some of the works that left a mark were Oscar Pistoletto’s Louvre from Galleria Continua, Jan Fabre’s Brain of God from Galerie Daniel Templon, Ai Weiwei’s bicycles from Lisson Gallery and the Study of a Leaning Clarinet by Claes Oldenburg from Pace Gallery. Spotting some of the many Tony Cragg sculptures was inevitable as was the 5mm USD Dolphin Balloon by Jeff Koons.

14 Rooms were literally 14 rooms with different performances taking place in each room. Located behind full length mirrored doors in a hallway, Marina Abromovic’s room has a completely naked woman hanging on the wall in a cross like form, Damien Hirst has identical twins going through the same motions simultaneously. The most intriguing performance among the 14 was in the Ed Atkins room. One man with a cloth bag over his head sitting on the carpet, having a conversation with a video installation human head is attention-grabbing.

Simultaneously with Art Basel itself in Messeplatz, there was SCOPE, LISTE, and VOLTA offering more affordable contemporary artists. Fondation Beyeler had a wonderful exhibit on Gerhard Richter and Schaulager on Paul Chan. In Schaulager, Katharina Fritsch’s Rattenkönig, the massive black ratpack made of Polyester resin might have reminded some viewers of New York City’s underground inhabitants. Vitra Design Museum was a must see, as it is every year, for architecture fans. Last but not least, Tinguely Museum this year had an entertaining Kristof Kintera exhibit while Kunstmuseum’s Charles Ray exhibit especially with the piece titled Boy with a frog was a favorite.