Award-winning landscape architecture firm led by Enzo Enea announces its seventh consecutive year of partnership with Art Basel in Basel, transforming the fair’s Rundhof into a living landscape.
On view: June 18 – 21, 2026
Press + VIP Breakfast and Panel Discussion: June 17, 9 – 11 AM
in conversation with Enzo Enea, Karsten Greve, Kathleen Jacobs
May 20, 2026 (Basel, Switzerland) – For Art Basel in Basel 2026, Enea Landscape Architecture transforms the Rundhof (round inner yard) of the fair into an immersive natural environment, inviting a state of contemplation at the intersection of art and nature in one of the most influential art contexts. This year's installation, The Living Fragment: Enea Tree Museum at Art Basel, on view during VIP days June 16 – 17, and public days June 18 – 21, 2026, showcases mature trees alongside wood seatings and wall coverings at the social heart of the fair. The installation reflects the legacy of the Enea Tree Museum in Rapperswil-Jona, near Zurich, a unique open-air museum where living trees and artworks are presented together in a curated landscape. Rooted in the belief that nature deserves the same contemplation we reserve for art, the museum brings rescued trees in dialogue with works by internationally renowned artists, such as John Giorno, Sylvie Fleury, Jaume Plensa, and Jürgen Drescher.
Amid the visual vibrancy of an international art fair, The Living Fragment offers a counterpoint: a place of tranquility, presence, and perception. The installation presents trees as carriers of time, planting as a living system, and landscape as spatial experience into a shared curatorial narrative. Originating from Europe, North America, the Caucasus, and East Asia, the trees selected for the installation represent a living atlas of the natural world, their diversity of form, texture, and seasonal character embodying the biodiversity at the heart of Enea's practice. These elements interact to form a composed landscape: one that creates habitats and influences the microclimate. Deliberately free of permanent artworks, the atmosphere emerges from living material, and wood seatings hand-carved directly from trees and charred using the traditional Japanese Yakisugi technique. The result is a landscape of light, texture, and movement, inviting visitors into a space for dialogue on the interplay of art, nature, and people.
A testament to Enzo Enea's lifelong commitment to preserving trees, the Enea Tree Museum stands as the only museum of its kind in the world. For more than 25 years, Enea has rescued trees, including ancient, mature specimens, from construction sites and developed areas, giving them new roots on the open-air museum grounds. Here, trees are presented as works of natural art, placed on equal footing with sculpture in a contemplative landscape. By presenting art by renowned artists alongside the trees, Enea demonstrates that architecture, art, and design are not only connected with nature but often originate from it in form and diversity. In the words of architect Enzo Enea: "Trees are living sculptures shaped by time, climate, and human care. Placing them alongside art feels entirely natural to me," a conviction that makes bringing a fragment of the museum to Art Basel in Basel all the more intentional.
The foundations for Enea were laid by Enzo Enea's father in 1973 with a garden decoration business. Since taking over and founding Enea Landscape Architecture in 1993, Enzo Enea has spent more than three decades redefining what landscape design can mean. The award-winning firm is known for preserving and designing with mature trees, committed to sustainable landscape design that positively influences local microclimates and counteracts the effects of climate change. Its work is grounded in the conviction that landscape architecture carries a responsibility that extends beyond aesthetics, and that landscape, at its most powerful, is a form of cultural practice. Enea collaborates with leading architectural studios, such as David Chipperfield Architects, Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG Bjarke Ingels Group, OMA (Rem Koolhaas), Herzog & de Meuron, Tadao Andō, Ingenhoven Architects, and ACPV Architects. Notable projects include the Rolex Building, New York; Rockefeller Center, New York; Apple Headquarters, Munich; Bulgari Hotel, Beijing; Peninsula Hotel, Istanbul, London; Four Seasons, Cartagena; University of St. Gallen; and Parque Global, São Paulo, as well as the art project Arena for a Tree at the 60th Venice Biennale in collaboration with Klaus Littmann.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The Living Fragment: Enea Tree Museum at Art Basel
On view: June 15 – 21, 2026, at the Rundhof of Art Basel in Basel
Press + VIP Breakfast and Panel Discussion on June 17, from 9 – 11 AM
Enzo Enea, gallerist Karsten Greve, and artist Kathleen Jacobs in conversation
Address:
Messe Basel
Messeplatz 10
4058 Basel, Switzerland
Opening hours:
Monday, June 15 | Unlimited Hall 1 Opening | 4 PM – 8 PM (by invitation only)
Tuesday, June 16 | 11 AM – 8 PM (by invitation only)
Wednesday, June 17 | 11 AM – 8 PM (by invitation only)
Thursday – Sunday, June 18 – 21 | 10 AM – 11 AM (early VIP hours) | 11 AM – 7 PM (public day hours)
About Enea Landscape Architecture:
Headquartered in Rapperswil-Jona, Enea is an international landscape architecture and horticulture company with offices in Zurich, New York City, Miami, and Milan. Led by Enzo Enea, the second generation who took over the company for garden decoration from his father in 1993, the award-winning firm is known for preserving and designing with mature trees and is committed to creating sustainable landscape design that positively influences the local microclimates and counteracts the effects of climate change.
enea.ch
About Enzo Enea:
Enzo Enea, a graduate industrial designer who studied landscape architecture in London, took over his father’s garden decoration company, founded in 1973, and transformed it into a landscape architecture and horticulture firm in 1993, growing it into a team of more than 240 professionals. In 2010, Enzo Enea opened the world’s only tree museum in Rapperswil-Jona, located within Enea’s expansive 7.5-hectare headquarters, which also includes a tree nursery, arboretum, design showroom, and a carpentry workshop.
About Art Basel:
Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world’s premier art shows for Modern and contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, Paris, and Qatar. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. Art Basel’s engagement has expanded through new digital platforms including Zero 10 and the Art Basel App, and initiatives such as the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report and Survey of Global Collecting, Art Basel Awards, and Art Basel Shop. For further information, please visit artbasel.com.
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Credits:
1. Enea Tree Museum. © Enea Landscape Architecture
2. Art Basel Rundhof, 2026. © Enea Landscape Architecture