CIVIC

Step out of your own world
Education could be that space where the walls breathe, and the floors feel like clouds beneath your feet. It could be that space where minds open wide, like the sky. At CIVIC, with the new floor, it is no longer just a thought floating in the air, but a ground you can walk on. Once a blank white canvas, the floor now is a sea of soft blue, spreading out, inviting all who enter to step into the world of the other. Gone is the semblance of sterility. In its place lies an endless swimming pool, 400 sqm of sky underneath your feet.

Too often, we see education as something to conquer, a mountain to climb, but perhaps it can be softer, more a conversation than a lecture, more improvisation than choreography, more experimentation than formula. Walking across the blue expanse should feel less like walking into an institution and more like gliding into a possible beginning.

CIVIC is not just a place; it’s an experiment in openness, a testing ground for ideas, and an opportunity for exchange. Here, education transcends the classroom—it happens at the liquid tables, at the mirrored Messy Kiosk, at the exhibition box, at the Freeshop or the Bookshop and now, even on the floor. The blue beneath your feet serves as a reminder that this is a shared, evolving space—a literally and metaphorically transparent civic space, which one can play a part in shaping, if wanted. 

Step into the world of the other
Students—from places where the ground may be cracked, grassy, cobblestone, sandy—come here, crossing oceans of sky to land on this floor. This blue feels like a deep breath after the rush of the city, a subtle but meaningful shift that signals: here, something is different. Here, the rules are meant to be softer, elastic. The blue floor whispers that it wants to be a soft space, a place inside the institution that feels outside of the institution. Dip your toes in the blue and feel that uncertainty isn’t something to fear but to explore—the world is big and you do not have all the answers, it’s enough to try and find some of them.

The transformation from white to blue is more than a colour change. White is hard, reflecting structured environments. It often keeps people separate, and creates distance. It is neutral and cold. Blue is different. This blue is soft. It reflects light, letting other colours bounce off it, evolving with the daylight, creating a constantly evolving environment. This is what the space reflects: a place that grows and shifts with the people in it, where learning is not just about acquiring knowledge but about inhabiting a world that is fluid and interconnected.

This soothing, soft blue invites all to expand their thinking, to let their guard down and take the stage, if they so wish. The blue at CIVIC tells its own story, just as the people, students, employees, researchers and visitors who step across it will tell theirs.

Words by Matylda Krzykowski, Artistic Lead of CIVIC.

Inaugurated in January 2022 at Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW, CIVIC is an education and experimental environment that provides opportunities for participation, contribution and exchange for and with students, researchers, employees and the public, to promote an understanding of the relevance of art and design today. In Summer 2024 the floor was transformed from white to blue.