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2026-06-02

FOR ART – A Temporary Art Intervention by Littmann Kulturprojekte. Basel 2025–2028

Opening: CADAVRE EXQUIS - A Relay Race in the Art of Drawing

The game has turned one hundred years old: representatives of Surrealism, above all André Breton, Paul Éluard, André Masson, Joan Miró or Yves Tanguy, passed folded papers from hand to hand around 1925. In the alternation of handwritings and ideas, they disabled the controlling mind. FOR ART takes up their artistic adventure and invites artists, in loose succession, to draw collectively.

Invitation to the Exhibition Opening

Tuesday, 2 June 2026, 6–8 pm

FOR ART, Rittergasse 21, Basel
Entrance: FOR ART Café-Bar

In «Cadavre exquis,» each draughtsman, each draughtswoman adds their own invention to a segment of the sheet, without knowing the creature already existing in parts. Thus every divided sheet brings fantastic bodies into the world, outwits beautiful ideals and gives the imagination new legs: a dragon’s head meets a hairy torso, feet turn into stilts, animal nerve fibres find connection to the human heart, and even upside down a dancer finds her stance. Across folds and surfaces, art combs its own rulebook against the grain and allies itself with the poetry of surprise.

«Cadavre exquis» is designed as a relay race: all participants each nominate one further person and hand for the next occasion. The relay race will be continued until the end of FOR ART’s temporary interim use. Since November 2025, five evenings have taken place with a total of 40 participants. With the presentation of all previous results, the third building of the interim use is now also publicly accessible.

Participating artists:
Urs Aeschbach, Stefan Auf der Maur, Luca Bartulović, Ralph Bürgin, Franz Burkhardt, Martin Chramosta, Maude Léonard Contant, Monika Dillier, Angelika Shaba Dreher, Tom Fellner, Philipp Gasser, Marica Gojevic, Mireille Gros, Sara J. Grütter, Axel Haberstroh, Eddie Hara, Cécile Hummel, Birgit Kempker, Andreas Kopp, kooni, Sonja Lippuner, Fabio Luks, Erin Mallon, Geneviève Morin, Claudia Müller, Marc Lohri, Petra Rappo, Sandra Rau, Maja Rieder, Thomas Ritz, Benoît Schmid, Wolfgang Schneider, Elia Setiadi, Angelika Shaba Dreher, Bruno Steiner, Hans Stalder, Flavia Spichtig, Yota Tsotra, Vital z’Brun, Anna Barbara Wiesendanger, Katharina Anna Wieser

Exhibition Opening Hours
3 June – 31 October 2026

FOR ART, Rittergasse 21, 4051 Basel

Free admission during the opening hours of the FOR ART Café-Bar (entrance)

Tue and Wed, 10 am – 7 pm
Thu to Sat, 10 am – 8 pm
Sun, 10 am – 6 pm

During Art Basel
14–21 June 2026, daily, 10 am – 10 pm

Summer break:19 July – 3 August 2026

more about FOR ART – A Temporary Art Intervention by Littmann Kulturprojekte. Basel 2025–2028