Artworld Passport at inaugural Africa Basel 2025.

by Stephan Rheeder

Conceived by Zimbabwean artist and artHARARE founder Richard Mudariki, the Art World Passport is a poetic act of resistance: a symbolic document that reimagines the global art world as a borderless space of movement, connection, and exchange. First launched during Frieze Week New York and recently featured at the inaugural Africa Basel, the project invites artists, curators, and collectors to record their journeys through the art world – stamping their passports at biennales, pop-ups, studio visits, and museums. Yet when Mudariki was denied a Swiss visa to present the work in person, the critique of exclusionary systems in the passport became viscerally real. Mudariki reflects on the project’s evolution, the community it has sparked, and how his absence in Basel became the most potent part of the artwork – transforming a moment of erasure into a call for visibility, mobility, and creative solidarity across borders.