OOO Object Oriented Ontology at Kunsthalle Basel

Artists: Urs Aeschbach, Jonas Baumann, Andreas Berde, David Berweger, Alex Bleuler, Claudia Borowsky, Barbara Bugg, Klaus A. Burth, Urs Cavelti, Ghizlène Chajaï, Guillaume Cochet, Grégory Delauré, Daniele Dell’Eva, Dimension Émotionnelle, Christoph Dinges, Sara Gassmann, Yulia Goetsch, Laurent Guenat, Edith Hänggi, Tenki Hiramatsu, Yoshiya Hirayama, Kirti Ingerfurth, Daniel Karrer, Benjamin Lenz, Kris Markiewicz, Geneviève Morin, Hiroko Nagata, Franziska Neuenschwander, Katrin Niedermeier, Gerardo Nolasco-Rózsás, Tobias Nussbaumer, Eva Schick, Lisa Schittulli, Christian Schmuck, Henry Staschik, Jonas Studer, Paul Takács, Romain Tièche, Sara Ursina, Mathis Vass, Gina Weisskopf, Martin Wiese, Michel Winterberg, Paulo Wirz, Kerstin Wittenberg, Franziska Wüsten

Exhibition title: OOO Object Oriented Ontology (Regionale 18)

Venue: Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Date: November 25, 2017 – January 7, 2018

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and ©Kunsthalle Basel

Note: Exhibition booklet can be found here

For this year’s Regionale-exhibition OOO Object Oriented Ontology, made in collaboration with CULTURESCAPES, artist and architect Andreas Angelidakis guest curates a deliriously rich exhibition, including 46 participants, over 100 artworks, and a specially designed scenography that subjectively reﬂects on the diverse artistic practices of the tri-national region in and around Basel.

Could we imagine that a call for portfolios such as Regionale, is a kind of hyperobject? A cloud that spans three regions, but extends to people of born in the region of Basel but living on the farthest point on the planet. Unselected, unsubmitted or even unrealized artworks would complete the hyperobject that is the Regionale 18.
As we examine this Regionale hyperobject, bodies of work tagged as interesting begin to form another type of being. Suddenly “Interesting Painting Number 3” begins to resonate with “Surprising Sculpture Number 14”, and both appeared to be talking to “Perplexing Performance Number One.” Only object-oriented ontology, the study of relationships between objects, beyond the scope of humans, could begin to explain the object that we are seeing.

Regionale 18, installation view, OOO Object Oriented Ontology, Kunsthalle Basel, 2017. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel