World's top contemporary art fair paints a portrait of a troubled planet

This year's Art Basel, the world’s top contemporary art fair, painted a portrait of a troubled planet, with works embodying the relentless pursuit of happiness and the fragility of democracies.

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The four-day event in the northern Swiss border city of Basel, which closed on Sunday, featured more than 280 galleries presenting works by around 4,000 artists. The monumental works section featured an 85-metre-long installation entitled “The Voyage — A March To Utopia”. Created by the studio of Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout, it featured 80 large sculptures forming a procession of absurd objects, where “everybody walked in the same direction... on their way to a happy place”, the artist said.

The journey begins with a team of oxen, followed by all means of getting to that better world, including a walking stick, a cart, a toilet on wheels, a wheelchair and a mobile surgical theatre for those struggling to keep up. Next came objects representing everything the convoy was carrying, followed by sculptures of ghosts symbolising those who didn't make it to the end. It ended with machines set to destroy the road behind them, so that “there was no going back”, the artist explained.

A stone's throw away, Spanish artist Jaume Plensa presented a work composed of 21 aluminium doors engraved with the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Entitled “Forgotten Dreams", it invited viewers to contemplate collective aspirations and not forget the horrors of the past.

Vietnam-born Danish artist Danh Vo had installed a huge US flag made from hundreds of logs and 13 steel stars, referencing the first version of the flag from 1777.