Terms and Conditions at For

Artists: Cyril Tyrone Hübscher, Thomas Julier, Judith Kakon, Teo Petruzzi, Amalia Ulman

Exhibition title: Terms and Conditions

Curated by: Valerie Keller, Matthias Liechti

Venue: For, Basel, Switzerland

Date: December 16, 2023 – February 10, 2024

Photography: Gina Folly / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and For

„The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. ‚Whither is God?‘ he cried; ‚I will tell you. We have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers.’” Nietzsche wrote 1882 in The Joyful Wisdom. The concept of the enlightened subject was supposed to offer redemption from dependence on a God-given morality, from a self-image as being controlled by instinct and designed to increase pleasure – a subject which had to be restrained, because it was not possible for it to develop morality from within itself (and together with others). Discarding the need for guidance promised the subject individual freedom, provided it uses its mind and takes personal responsibility.

This rational, autonomous, self-responsible subject now lives in ludocapitalist societies in which personal freedom is limited to the ability to choose between different types of consumption. It thus becomes a consumer citizen that decides what to consume and considers the decision as an act of self-responsibility. But the illusionary character of the rational, autonomous subject seems to grow ever clearer in the glittering paradise of pleasurable sounds. We find ourselves in a world of Polly Pocket, playing in a self-determined and enlightened way on prepared paths, with possible practices and suggested self-images that can even appear in the form of a fox-human-hybrid. Write me back if you would like to know more details 😉 Creating knowledge becomes archaeological work that interrupts the comfort flow. The diggings remain vague and the findings clouded by mechanisms that learn from the very attempts to see through their veils. In the endless rotation on the hovering chair, in the centrifugal swing of the small carousel‘s seats, we recognize the futility of uncovering the repeating tricks in their ever-changing formulas. Welcome!

Terms and Conditions, 2023, exhibition view, For, Basel

Teo Petruzzi, HappY Family, 2023, puffer jackets, embroidery, door wardrobe, 120 × 53 × 24 cm

Terms and Conditions, 2023, exhibition view, For, Basel

Teo Petruzzi, Stream #5 (A lakeside view, with a few white motor boats bobbing up and down on lazy waves and fine palm tree leafs slowly brushing up on a pastel yellow bungalow, after the owner of the camera found out that I had been watching him through his own surveillance stream), 2018, jpg, 4:3, screenshot, black & white, mono, crt monitor

Thomas Julier, Elbow Segments, 2023, acrylic paint on fibre glass, sanded and polished fibre glass, 125 x 35 x 53 cm

Terms and Conditions, 2023, exhibition view, For, Basel

Amalia Ulman, video excerpt of The Future Ahead, 2014, folding chairs, mov, 16:9, color, sound, 16’15“

Teo Petruzzi, HAPPY FAMILY, 2023, puffer jackets, embroidery, heart pendants, 73 × 40 × 18 cm

Thomas Julier, 2021-08-01 00:00:10 – 2021-06-21 18:48:04, 2023, pigment prints on archival paper, acrylic paint on wooden frame, 60 x 90 x 3.5 cm each

Teo Petruzzi, Stream #12 (home), 2019, mp4, 16:9, color videoloop on monitor, no sound, 5‘55“

Terms and Conditions, 2023, exhibition view, For, Basel

Teo Petruzzi, HappY FAMily, 2023, puffer jackets, embroidery, craft beads, 93 × 62 × 24 cm

Cyril Tyrone Hübscher, BLEIB WACH! (architecture model of the subway station „Hauptwache“ in Frankfurt am Main), 2023, birthday candles, glitter, epoxyresin, PLA-prints, acrylic glass, spraypaint, mdf, lametta, led-lamp, 200 x 120 x 17 cm

Judith Kakon, Alibaba Stickers, 2016/17, digital print on self-adhesive labels, 8 x 10 cm each