Art & Wheels – Basel,
Switzerland 2016
Artists of the Custom Motorcycle
A perfect mix when the
weather is as great as that splendid May weekend at the north-west corner of
Switzerland: About 100+ "Old School" themed motorcycles lingered
outside the Gallery event hall, which is situated almost invisible in a suburb
of Basel. But that morning, you only had to follow any particular
Harley-Davidson – and it would bring you to Gallery Projektraum M54 on the
right side of the Rhine river flowing through Basel. Fortunately, a church and
a former school gave room to park the bikes of numerous visitors that came by
motorcycle that day. Car-parking was next to impossible.
Text & Photos Art & Wheels Switzerland by Horst Rösler
The one-day show is framed
by a party the first day (after-show party grated too!) and a ride-out of the
bikes exhibited (!), friends and "Old School" enthusiast on Sunday.
This time as far as visiting the CCCP workshop in Malters close to Luzern! For
the benefit of those who visited the party on Friday, the show does not open
before noon – but is going on ‘tíll 10 pm.
By then the whole block must have recognized that something interesting is
going on in Mörsbergerstrasse 54!
This year, for the first
time and thanks to a) the support of sponsors and b) the overwhelming success
of the first event, bikes were shipped even from the USA to present them at
this small but intense event that is meant to grow in future years. Nobody can
be sure if this location won't be too small already in 2017? Paul Cox, (Paul
Cox Industries, USA), Chris Richardson (L.A. Speed Shop, USA), Uwe Ehinger
(Ehinger Kraftrad, Germany), and Andy Niemi (Flying Choppers, Finland), were
the most prominent names with superb customs present. Swiss builders like Mc
Sands (Mc Sands Motor Shop, Switzerland) displayed show winning bikes from
international events. From the Collection of Luigi Collani Desings, the famous
"Collani Münch" of 1972 (!!), a project to aid the struggling
technician from Hessen with his too-early Superbike was the secret
"star" of the event! The afternoon saw the "Exhibitors
Pick" when some of the exhibitors choose their favourite bikes from the
parked motorcycles outside, not unlike Willie's Tropical Tattoo Show and
Mecrin's "Old School Swap Meet & Bike Show", held for the 19th
edition the Sunday before!
The history of the event
itself is short: When Vinz, Mario and Lukas first got together to talk about
Art and Wheels Basel, they had no idea what would happen on that one day in May
2015 in Basel. They put in all their energy and ideas to organize what was to
become the first ever edition of Art and Wheels Basel. Bringing together
different subcultures like motorcycles, skateboarding, Punk Rock, Hot Rodding,
BMX, art, and a million other things was the initial goal of the exhibition.
The 2016 edition got even better – and planning of 2017 is already underway!
Art & Custombikes work together in perfect harmony! Check it out at
"Art and Wheels" at Basel 2017!
Text & Photos: Horst
Rösler
https://artandwheelsbasel.wordpress.com/
ABOUT
What happens when a motorcycle
mechanic, a leather craftsman and a student sit down totally hammered at an
event with the dream to organize a motorcycle and art show?
When Vinz, Mario and Lukas
first got together to talk about Art and Wheels Basel, they had no idea what
would happen on that one day in May 2015 in Basel. They put in all their energy
and ideas to organize what was to become the first ever edition of Art and
Wheels Basel. Bringing together different subcultures like motorcycles,
skateboarding, Punk Rock, Hot Rodding, BMX, art, and a million other things was
the initial goal of the exhibition that was the first ever of its kind in
Switzerland. Going away from traditional biker imaginery the show wasn’t just
about beards, skulls, beer bellys and leather jackets. It was and still is
about the art and craftmanship it takes to build a motorcycle and handle it on
the wide open road.
With over 1’600
spectators, bikes parked all over the place outside of the venue in
„Kleinbasel“ the pulsating area of their home town and about 100 motorcycles on
the ride-out on Sunday, the first edition of Art and Wheels Basel was a success
we never dreamed about.
To top it off for 2016,
we’re not just bringing VIP guests from all around the globe to Switzerland,
we’re also trying to get some bikes from the USA shipped here. We want to
present you some of the biggest names of the international custom bike scene as
well as the young and wild talented newcomers. A lot of these people have
become close friends of ours during the last years and we want you to meet them
and get to know them and spend the weekend not just looking at their stuff but
spending it WITH them, as equals. We all party together Friday night at the
imfamous DicE party, talk about bikes and art on Saturday’s show and go ride motorcycles
together on Sunday. There will be no restricted VIP areas at Art and Wheels
Basel, we’re all equals sharing the same love for motorcycles and are all here
to have a good time together and enjoy all the beauty and madness some folks
started decades ago.
We’re not just talking
about this vibe, you could really feel it at the first edition of Art and
Wheels Basel. Just ask our invited guests, spectators and our sponsors from the
last show. Everything worked like a Swiss watch and our guests were happy
attending what they called „one of the best organized shows ever“. People would
really feel that this event is not about profit since admission is free and
there are no vendors selling the same stuff you can get at every other event.
And well, it’s no secret
that some show from overseas was a big role model for Art and Wheels Basel. We
just love the vibe they created over there and it was a big goal of ours to
bring this ambiance to europe.
On the following pages we
want to present you what we have achieved in 2015 and what we want to
accomplish in 2016. To simply put it in one sentence, we want to bring together
people from all around the world, different backgrounds, different approaches
and visions to have one great weekend of sharing stories, learning from each
other and talking about current and future projects and most importantly RIDE.
BUILDERS
Max Schaaf, 4Q Custom
Conditioning, USA
Josh Kurpius, USA
Paul Cox, Paul Cox
Industries, USA
Chris Richardson, L.A.
Speed Shop, USA
Uwe Ehinger, Ehinger Kraftrad,
Germany
Andy Niemi, Flying
Choppers, Finland
Mc Sands Motor Shop,
Switzerland
Markus Roch, Stuff from
Hell, Germany
Nobbi Wolf-Sekine, W&W
AG, Germany
CCCP Motorcycles,
Switzerland
Rob, Eat Dust Clothing,
Belgium
Christian Voss, Germany
VTR Customs, Switzerland
Raphael Schaub, Schaub
Metalworks, Switzerland
Marc Baier, Switzerland
Vinzenz Guntern,
Switzerland
ARTISTS
Franz J. Venzin,
solidpleasure.com, Switzerland
Josie Perez, USA
Mitch Cotie, USA
Christopher C. Galley,
Devil Chicken Design, USA
Eddie Hara, Indonesia
El Balenko, Poland
Ettore “Blaster”
Callegaro, Italy
Schwarz Iron’art,
Switzerland
AWARDS
As we did at the 2015
show, we’re again giving away two of our BADASS AWARDS.
It’s not about having the
most expensive and perfect custombike, it’s about riding a bike to the show
that you built yourself, in your own garage with your own two hands.
We think custombikes are
made for riding and we wanna pay tribute to this by giving away two awards
including goodies from our sponsors and other stuff to people, that share the
same passion for riding and customizing as we do.
There will be awards from
Marcos Free Kustom Cycles Spain and The Factory Metal Works along with badass
handmade helmets from Joe King Speed Shop and goodie packages from Lowbrow
Customs and handmade knifes from Old Bike Barn.
SPONSORS
(in alphabetical order)
Ace Cafe Luzern
BMW Motorrad & VTR
Customs
DicE Magazine
Easyriders Magazine Europe
Eat Dust Clothing
Elektrizitäts AG Basel
Factory Metal Works
Free Kustom Cycles Barcelona
Hot Bike Magazine
Iron Thread
Jerk Kustoms
Joe King Speed Shop
Kustom Life Magazine
Lowbrow Customs
Möbel-Markt Gomesia
Moto Senn, Harley Davidson
Aargau
Nomad Hotel, Basel
Old Bike Barn
Richard’s Motorcycles,
Harley Davidson Basel
The Rokker Company
Ryder’s Store, Lörrach
Sailor Jerry
For general inquiries
write an email to artandwheelsbasel@gmail.com
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