Deborah Schamoni

Deborah Schamoni is pleased to present a project by Finnegan Shannon as part of this year’s Parcours section at Art Basel. 

Drawing on personal experience and activism, Shannon (b. 1989, Berkeley, CA; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) develops multidisciplinary works—spanning sculpture, text, installation, and publishing—that reframe accessibility as a social and spatial relationship: something fluid, negotiated, and far from guaranteed. 

Installed along Clarastrasse are several benches from Shannon’s ongoing series Do you want us here or not. These signal-blue seating sculptures function double as resting spots and conversation starters. With phrases like “It was hard to get here” or “Rest here if you agree,” they speak directly to the public —asking who gets considered in the design of public life. The benches have previously been shown at institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, MMK Frankfurt, and MUDAM Luxembourg. A second intervention, Disabled in Public, presents seven works from Have You Ever Fallen in Love with a Clock? – a series of clocks that that track days instead of hours. Each clock completes one full rotation every seven days. Quietly placed in everyday locations, they interrupt fast-paced timekeeping and suggest slower, more accommodating rhythms. 

Shannon’s works don’t shout. They shift the atmosphere. With wit and empathy, they invite us to rethink what access means—not as a fixed goal, but as a continuous act of care.

Curated by Stefanie Hessler
Photos: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano