The cinematic opera “River of Fundament” was created between 2007 and 2014 by the American artist Matthew Barney in collaboration with the composer Jonathan Bepler. In February 2014, the project celebrated its premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Co-produced by the Laurenz Foundation and Matthew Barney, the film was screened for the first time in Switzerland in June 2014 in Basel, in cooperation with Theater Basel.

Together with the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Laurenz Foundation acquired the extensive Drawing Restraint Archive by the American artist Matthew Barney. Drawing Restraint is an ongoing series of performances begun in 1987 in which Matthew Barney leaves drawn traces in an environment of self-induced physical and psychological restraints. These performances give rise to further artistic works such as sculptures, vitrines, drawings and videos. The so-called Drawing Restraint Archive was the point of departure for a significantly broader-based exhibition at Schaulager in 2010, with works from the Laurenz Foundation and additional loans.