Public Events Calendar

In Northern Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, honor and reward were often signified by a silver cup. Silver and gilt-silver vessels served to commemorate births, deaths, and marriages; they sealed diplomatic relationships and represented communal institutions like guilds, charitable societies, and civic governing bodies. They were prizes in lotteries and shooting contests. Made of a precious metal directly tied to contemporary currency, the silver cup embodied monetary value that was recognizable and easily extracted by melting and minting.⁠ But, as the product of innovating, skilled craftsmen, it could also hold aesthetic as well as symbolic value, which was tied to its ability to denote people, places, and historical events. These entangled value systems were brought into high relief in wartime, when silver plate was taken as booty, or confiscated to fund military defense, or relinquished as ransom to protect life and limb. 

This talk tracks silver cups through the tumultuous decades of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), a period characterized by dispossession and displacement. It analyzes the highly ambivalent status the silver cup held as both financial asset and symbolic object. Primary evidence for this analysis includes eyewitness accounts of confiscation, inventories recording the personal significance of silver cups, and surviving hoards of valuables concealed for protection under the threat of siege. The talk’s conclusion turns towards the present day and the competing values that still define early modern silver as both commodity and cultural artifact. 

Alterung ist ein universeller Prozess, der nach und nach unsere Leistungsfähigkeit verringert und letztlich zum Tod führt. Aber was genau bedeutet es zu altern, und wie kann man dies messen? Altern wir alle unterschiedlich, und was passiert dabei im Körper? Ist Alterung unvermeidlich oder lässt sich dieser Prozess beeinflussen? Gibt es wissenschaftliche Beweise für die viel beworbenen «Anti-Aging»-Wundermittel? Erfahren Sie mehr über das Altern und wie unsere Forschung versucht, vielen dieser Fragen auf den Grund zu gehen.

Eintritt frei; mit anschliessendem Apéro

Habt ihr euch jemals gefragt, wie Supercomputer komplexe Probleme lösen, wie man in einer virtuellen Realität Schach spielt oder ob unsere Smart TVs uns überwachen? An der Fantasy Basel – The Swiss Comic Con habt ihr die Gelegenheit, genau das herauszufinden. Drei Forschungsgruppen des Departements Mathematik und Informatik (DMI) der Universität Basel laden dazu ein, in diese spannenden Forschungsfelder einzutauchen. Mit interaktiven Exponaten machen wir abstrakte Forschung greifbar. Kleine wie grosse Besucher*innen haben hier die Möglichkeit, selbst auszuprobieren und Fragen zu stellen.

Die Fantasy Basel ist das Festival für Film-, Game-, Comic- und Cosplayfans! Mit über 97'000 Besucherinnen und Besuchern im Jahr 2025 ist die FANTASY BASEL - The Swiss Comic Con die grösste Veranstaltung für Popkultur in der Schweiz und die wohl vielseitigste in Europa.

An drei Tagen kommen Fans mit den unterschiedlichsten Interessen zusammen, um ihre Liebe zu Filmen, Serien, Comics, Cosplay, Gaming, Superhelden, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Anime und vielem mehr zu feiern. Triff alte und neue Freunde und feiere gemeinsam mit ihnen die Freude an verschiedensten Fandoms und am Nerd-Sein. Mit einem umfassenden Programm, das sich auf insgesamt acht Bühnen und über 800 Stände verteilt, bietet das Festival eine schier endlose Bandbreite von Aktivitäten, Sehenswürdigkeiten und Erlebnissen.

This panel discussion will reflect on the central ideas and broader implications of the exhibition The First Homosexuals. It will start with an introduction to the exhibition’s conceptual framework by Jonathan D. Katz, followed by a conversation that will explore what it means to center homosexuality — a term that emerged in the late nineteenth century from legal theory, psychiatry, and medicine — as an art-historical category. What is gained by understanding art as a record of queer life and experience? How can queer perspectives help us to understand certain works anew? The panel will situate the exhibition within current debates in queer art history and in relation to other recent exhibitions. Particular attention will be given to the Swiss context of this second iteration following Chicago, as well as the exhibition’s engagement with questions of colonialism.

Veranstalter:

Kunstmuseum Basel and Kunsthistorisches Seminar, Laurenz-Professur für Zeitgenössische Kunst

This one-day workshop, organized in conjunction with the exhibition The First Homosexuals: The Birth of New Identities 1869–1939 at the Kunstmuseum Basel, engages with the methods and terms of queer art history. Curator Jonathan D. Katz and associate curator Johnny Willis will share insights into the exhibition’s conceptual framework and the research process behind this scholarly exhibition and publication project. A central aim of the workshop is to explore what queer methodologies can contribute to art historical inquiry, while also critically addressing unresolved questions and reflecting on the project’s limitations and omissions. The morning session, held at the museum, will consist of a joint walkthrough of the exhibition and discussion of selected works. The afternoon session, hosted at eikones, will focus on lesbian and trans artists, as well as the question of colonialism. It will further develop questions of methodology and terminology through a discussion of readings circulated in advance.

Program

10 am – 12 pm (Kunstmuseum Basel)
Opening input by Jonathan D. Katz

Joint walkthrough of the exhibition The First Homosexuals and discussion of selected works

12 pm – 1.30 pm
Lunch break 

1.30 pm – 3.30 pm (eikones)
Discussion of methods and terms, based on selected readings from the catalog The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity 1869–1939 (ed. Jonathan D. Katz with Johnny Willis, New York 2025):

• Jonathan D. Katz, “Introduction,” pp. 8–15
• Douglas Pretsell, “The Crucible of Sexual Orientation: Sexual Theories and Identities in Nineteenth-Century Germany,” pp. 38–43
• Catherine Gonnard and Tirza True Latimer, “Unbecoming Women: Becoming Lesbians in the Arts, 1850s–1920s France,” pp. 80–87
• Joseph Shaikewitz, “Inversions: Errancy and Abundance in Brazil and the Southern Cone,” pp. 236–243

Limited number of participants. To register and receive the readings as a PDF, please write to: charlotte.matter@unibas.ch

Die Gesellschaft, 1870 gegründet, veranstaltet sechs Vorträge pro Jahr zu brandaktuellen Themen aus Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft, Politik und Gesellschaft. Dazu lädt sie hochkarätige nationale und internationale Referenten ein.

Besuchen Sie eine unserer nächsten Veranstaltungen und werden Sie Mitglied der SVG Basel.

Depuis 1918, la Société d’études françaises de Bâle contribue au rayonnement de la culture française et francophone. Elle organise une vingtaine de conférences par an.

Participation aux frais : non-membres : CHF 15.-. Etudiantes et étudiants : gratuit.