Exhibition A dreamlike journey into the near future at the Kunstmuseum Basel
Cao Fei releases the octopus from the historic video game "Super Delivery" into a surreal dream world in her "Playground" at the Kunstmuseum Basel's contemporary art museum.
Image: Keystone
"Hip Hop: Fukuoka" by Cao Fei in the environment specially designed for the Basel exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel's Gegenwartskunsthaus.
Image: Keystone
Cao Fei releases the octopus from the historic video game "Super Delivery" into a surreal dream world in her "Playground" at the Kunstmuseum Basel's contemporary art museum.
Image: Keystone
"Hip Hop: Fukuoka" by Cao Fei in the environment specially designed for the Basel exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel's Gegenwartskunsthaus.
Image: Keystone
The contemporary building of the Kunstmuseum Basel presents itself as a city of surreal visions of a near future for its reopening after renovation. The art world that fills the entire museum was created by the Chinese artist Cao Fei.
28.05.2026, 13:44
SDA
At the media presentation on Thursday, the artist, who was born in Guangzhou in China's industrial belt in 1978, described the world that she has now brought to Switzerland, which is perceived as extremely consistent, as "loud and garish". "Testimonies to the Near Future" is the title of the exhibition, which brings together immersive installations, video worlds and photographs from her last thirty years of work.
It is loud and garish when you enter the large entrance hall of the museum. And pretty filthy. The walls, covered in tags and spray-painted by Basel artists, are as filthy as if the water damage that forced the museum to close for a year had not been repaired. A skate ramp is set up on the floor with the words "Skate and Destroy" on it.
This is the environment in which Cao Fei presents her hip-hop video series, which she has been creating since 2003. These are insights into department stores, street canyons and the like, in which surreal dance and music scenes take place.
Surreal alienations of everyday worlds
The alienation of everyday worlds is something of a program in Cao Fei's views of the near or already begun future. They lead into factory and logistics centers, into gaming salons or into very intimate, personal dream worlds. This leads to surprising, sensual and even irritating insights.
In the "Playground" level, for example, the artist has freed the octopus from the ancient 2D runner video game "Super Delivery", which now towers over a playground filled with hundreds of plastic balls.
The exhibition, which fills every last corner of the museum building, is also a fascinating journey into the rapid development of digital worlds, starting with bumpy avatars and ending in realistic virtual parallel worlds.
"It would take five days to really see everything," said Cao Fei with an ambiguous smile at the media presentation. There is time until October 11, 2026.
