Often when I’m on holiday and I spot a remarkable piece of public art, I’ll ruefully think to myself, “you’d never be able to have that in the UK, they wouldn’t respect it.” That particular feeling wasn’t one that lasted very long when I saw Richard Serra’s Intersection in Basel. Despite the city being otherwise a model of the Swiss-German order, cleanliness and obedience, the rank smell of urine, baked in the hot sun, that emanated from its panels was pretty overpowering when I stepped in to take some close ups.
Probably not what Serra intended, but if you will install large sheets of curved metal into a public square, it seems even the Swiss can’t help themselves before turning it into a makeshift urinal.
