New York-based artist Chloe Wise has opened "Extrasensory," her first major institutional exhibition in Switzerland, at Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger (KBH.G) in time for Art Basel in Basel. Curated by Samuel Leuenberger, the exhibition centers on *PsyFi*, Wise's most ambitious film project to date, presented as a large-scale three-channel installation. The film explores how different cultures and historical periods have attempted to understand encounters with the unknown, drawing parallels between religious visions and contemporary accounts of extraterrestrial phenomena. The exhibition also features immersive environments, including an esoteric roadside gift shop and a hybrid dressing room-worship-spacecraft interior, blurring distinctions between spirituality, commerce, and popular culture.
This exhibition matters because it arrives at a moment when questions surrounding belief, technology, and perception feel increasingly relevant, offering one of the most ambitious institutional shows in Basel during the city's major art fair week. Wise's project proposes that whether discussing divine apparitions or alien encounters, the desire to explain the unknowable remains remarkably constant. By transforming KBH.G into a space where science fiction, spirituality, and contemporary image culture collide, the exhibition positions Wise as a significant voice in contemporary art, examining how myths are constructed and transmitted through visual culture.