culturescapes is a multidisciplinary swiss arts festival devoted to inter-cultural exchange. the festival, which takes place in autumn, showcases the cultural landscape of a different region, nation or city every year. although based in basel the festival extends to many other places in switzerland, such as aarau, bern, chur, zurich, geneva or bellinzona. founded in the year 2002, the festival mainly focussed on eastern european countries at the beginning. however, with festival editions devoted to countries like turkey, azerbaijan, china or israel the festival gradually expanded its scope. to mark its tenth anniversary in 2012 culturescapes focussed on moscow, for the first time placing the topography of a city at the centre of the festival. the 2013 balkans festival edition highlighted not only a country but an entire cultural region. 2015 iceland was presented. at the same time was also announced that in the future the festival will take place in the biennial rhythm. the next edition will therefore be in 2017.