Unbetrauerbar at For

Artist: Petra Cortright, Giulia Essyad, Elin Gonzalez, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Pauline Julier, Norbert Klassen, Callum Ross, Rita Siegfried, Simon Wyss

Exhibition title: Unbetrauerbar at For

Venue: For, Basel, Switzerland

Date: October 21 – December 10, 2022

Photography: Gina Folly / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and For, Basel

According to Sigmund Freud, the condition of melancholia denotes the inability to mourn for something. While mourning is a normal process, he describes melancholia as an illness. Thus framed, melancholia is configured as a personal problem and its critical potential is rendered harmless. Against this background, Judith Butler shows how speaking openly about the social and cultural triggers of melancholia becomes an act of resistance. This is the starting point for our exhibition. What is ungrievable, and what we should indeed grieve for, are decided collectively. In a mundane act of violence, we collectively establish clear boundaries and silence those who transgress them. The works on display make impossible grief, unfulfilled longings and unattainable ideals palpable. They initiate a critical dialogue with us, guardians of norms, who manifest this normativity both physically and mentally when we enter the space. Welcome!

Upon completion of the exhibition, a magazine will be published with texts by Adéolá Olákìítán, Orna Donath, Maximilian Jablonowski and Meret Kaufmann on the topics of virtual melancholy, regretting motherhood, future nostalgia, re-reading Freud and desiring differently.