June 14 – 20, 2026
This year, the the Institute Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) at HGK Basel will host the live radio programme «You Never Listen», reimagining its yearly publishing platform, ixdm.distro, as a temporary radio station: a hybrid between an on-air publishing space, a reading studio, and a walk-in listening area.
Extending broadcasting into experimental forms, Maria Maddalena Lenzi and Agnes Leclaire will host the public broadcasting and music sessions during the fair days.
If I Never Read and You Never Listen, what type of collaboration can emerge?
Sunday
14:30 «You Never Listen»: What do you Mean? – It’s Just an Opening Transmission. Opening of the radio programme by ixdm.distro with Maria Maddalena Lenzi and Agnes Leclaire.
15:00 The Basel Collection, radio launch of a publication by Angela Grosso Ciponte, Jana Heinemann and Martin Woellenstein. A brochure offering proposals for transforming the fashion industry and regulating the export of textile waste.
16:00 IXDM on air? – Matthias Böttger and Ann Mbuti on the Institute Experimental Design and Media Cultures broadcasting, organized by ixdm.distro
16:30 Subtropical Ghosts and Memory Potions: Towards Brewing an Affective Archive of Yerba Mate, a conversation and live experiment by Camila Chebez. Through spoken word, this contribution follows Yerba Mate (Ilex paraguariensis) between northern Argentina and Switzerland, weaving together botanical notation, expedition diaries, love letters, lullabies, and Tony Mate ads. As a Mate-offering, it traces archival legacies shaped by green colonialism and asks us to move beyond anthropocentric thinking, re-attuning instead to vegetal temporalities and the wider ecological bodies that connect us, organized by ixdm.distro
17:30 With(in) Timewise by Weiyu Chen and Liou Yuh-Chyi. A reading of fragments from an essay-calendar that treats time as slower, more situated, and more attentive — followed by an invitation to create your own solar terms on site, organized by ixdm.distro
21:30 Happy Birthday I Never Read! Sound closing by Agnes Leclaire and I Never Read, organized by ixdm.distro
Monday
16:00 «You Never Listen» When I Speak About Who Should (Co-)create the Art Space. Forum session hosted by Maria Maddalena Lenzi with Carolina Brunelli from Dock Kunstraum, Archiv und Ausleihe, organized by ixdm.distro.
16:30 Eve Sedgwick Reparative Reading Group. Collective reading and conversation by Ines Kleesattel, Ludgi Porto, Lucie Kolb, and Linsey Rendell of excerpts from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick on paranoid and reparative reading, organized by ixdm.distro.
17:30 Matters of Organisation: New Institutions for New Narratives. Reading and conversation by Reto Riggs on climate change and what we must consider in building alternative institutions capable of holding space for genuinely generating new narratives, organized by ixdm.distro.
18:30 Michael Stucki presents a live demo of analog video, glitches, and circuit bending, organized by ixdm.distro.
19:15 «Maybe you shouldn’t start with 1000 Copies»: Cautionary tales of independent publishing. Chrysa Chouliara of Nightcall Editions in conversation on the dos and don’ts of self-publishing — a science communicator by day, creator by night.
21:30 Happy Birthday I Never Read! Sound closing by Agnes Leclaire and I Never Read, organized by Ixdm.distro
Tuesday
16:00 «You Never Listen» When I Speak About (Independent) Publishing Constraints. Forum session hosted by Maria Maddalena Lenzi with I Never Read and exhibitors from the fair, organized by ixdm.distro.
16:30 A Story of Folly, Mirages, and Great Terrible Ideas. Reading by Felipe Castelblanco revolves around the start of a long-term project through which the author sailed around the world in a tiny makeshift raft. The session describes how a 10-year project started from a simple misunderstanding and total ignorance of seafaring, organized by ixdm.distro.
21:00 On Connection. Conversation by Anna Laederach and Ivana Jovic, thinking with Kae Tempest’s On Connection. Starting from the idea that creativity is «any act of love, any act of making» and connection a way of «landing in the present tense, fully immersed in whatever occupies you,» the lecturer duo reflects on collective making and learning processes as vessels for solidarity in severely fragmented times marked by overwhelm, grief and isolation. Organized by ixdm.distro
Wednesday
16:00 «You Never Listen» When I Speak About Sound as Place-Maker. Forum session hosted by Agnes Leclaire, organized by ixdm.distro.
16:30 Live Jukebox. Sound session by Ann Mbuti, organized by ixdm.distro
21:00 what a small world! by 2minimeters (Wu Heng and Sezen Ergün), organized by ixdm.distro
21:30 Waste, space, design and the way we forget about our discards. Agnes Leclaire in conversation with Alessandro Pellanda.
Thursday
16:00 «You Never Listen» When I Speak About Fair Pay and Fair Play Practices in the Arts. Forum session hosted by Maria Maddalena Lenziwith Ozan Güngör and Catherin Schöberl from Unofficial Hiking Society. Organized by ixdm.distro.
16:30 Collagenartige Lesung von Was bleibt (Julia Sahli, Luana Capaul, Nils Niederhauser, Malena Schmid and Moira Lansdell). Eine collageartige Lesung von Textfragmenten. Wir erzählen von dem Leben und den Beziehungen unserer Grossmütter, und zeigen durch eine feministische Linse auf, was diese mit uns zu tun haben. Organisiert von ixdm.distro.
18:15 be careful what you don’t say! Klara Jeltsch presents findings from her master’s thesis on democratic discourse alongside a card game of self-reflection questions — food for thought for listeners and a spark for conversation, organized by ixdm.distro.
18:30 Käsesyndikat by Harvest Salon (Livni Holtz and Nicolas Seiler) — a live activation bringing a cheese wheel into the radio space and inviting listeners to share their cheese stories after a taste. Through a short interview format, the session opens a conversation about alternative economic systems and collective food practices, organized ixdm.distro.
21:30 Live Jukebox. Sound session by Ann Mbuti, organized by ixdm.distro
Friday
16:00 «You Never Listen» When I Speak About Civic Work and Institutional Transformation. Forum session hosted by Maria Maddalena Lenziwith Matylda Krzykowski and CIVIC. Organized by ixdm.distro.
16:30 Widerständige Handarbeit in conversation — HyperWerk’s latest publication, organized by ixdm.distro.
17:00 IXDM Publications Launch Celebration Event followed by a convivial Apero, organized by ixdm.distro.
19:00 Transversal Design Publication Vol. 02 — A Book on Friendship. Book launch activation by the MA Transversal Design, organized by ixdm.distro
Saturday
16:00 «You Never Listen» When I Speak About How Documentation and Archiving Shape Cultural Work. A forum hosted by Maria Maddalena Lenzi with Vera Zurbrügg. Organized by ixdm.distro.
16:30 Afternoon Reading Room: Xenofiction with Linsey Rendell, Lou:s Voelkel, Sarah Badr and Gwen Chu, organized by ixdm.distro
17:30 Communication Without Language: On Digital Affection, Games and Mythological Storytelling. Lou:s Voelkel, Benedict Henshaw and Maria Maddalena Lenzi in conversation, organized by ixdm.distro.
21:00 «You Never Listen» is a Temporary Condition. Reflections and voices of the closing session. Forum hosted by Maria Maddalena Lenzi and Agnes Leclaire, organized by ixdm.distro
21:30 Happy Birthday I Never Read! Sound closing by Agnes Leclaire, organized by ixdm.distro.
The ixdm.distro radio programme and temporary radio station is organized by Maria Maddalena Lenzi with ixdm.distro, which is Lucie Kolb, Felipe Castelblanco, Anna Laederach, Ann Mbuti and friends.