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Opening to a packed audience, the discussion session had all the promise of shaping up to be a riveting conversation. Among the panelists were cutting-edge architects from Jordan and Dubai, museum directors from Israel, Turkey and Palestine, an innovative non-profit gallery owner hailing from Cairo, and the director of the newly launched Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates.

But when the introduction session quickly turning into a platform for individual panelists to present Powerpoint after Powerpoint, audience members began to realize—after an hour into the session and with six panelists still in the queue—that there was no real conversation in sight.

The impatience peaked as Rasem Badran, an architect from Jordan, launched into a discussion of his fourth or fifth museum project, illustrating his points with a sleek video presentation. Displaying the utmost restraint, audience members politely broke into applause twice in a futile attempt to encourage some intervention on the part of the host, über-curator Hans Ulrich Obrist of Serpentine Gallery in London.

Eventually those pressed for time simply cut out, including two panel members themselves—Hoor Al Qasimi, the Sharjah Biennial director, and Jack Persekian, director of the Al Ma’mal foundation in Jerusalem and founder of the nomadic CAMP contemporary art museum.

Despite the problem of loquaciousness, there were some highlights among the lengthy introductions. Dalia Levin presented a fascinating overview of some of the most politically charged projects of Israeli and Palestinian artists at the Herzliya Museum in Israel; and William Wells, director of the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, provided a much needed dose of humor as he discussed his reasons for moving away from traditional conceptions of the museum.

“In Egypt we have the largest collection of Pharaonic art in the world,” Wells began drolly. “In fact, we are Pharaonic.”

The point, raised by Wells in his introduction and later by an incisive audience member, was that the very concept of museums as an institution, built as they are on the 19th-century concept of amassing endless archives, are simply an obsolete model for the future. As one proposed alternative, Wells has taken his gallery to the public, occupying an abandoned factory and inviting artists—from local residents to established international artists—to work within the space.

Though there was sadly not enough time to develop the topic, the conversation took a turn for the interesting when a fired-up audience member urged the panel to address the core of the problem.

“It seems that our culture is obsessed with collecting and displaying our culture to ourselves. We should find a new solution because the West is doing the wrong thing... I wish we could just find a way to eventually destroy the art!” he said passionately.

And with those fighting words still looming in everyone’s minds, it was time to dive back into the frenzy of the Art Basel exhibition floor.