The "Tor 4" project of BASF's cultural sponsorship is at the heart of an innovative form of art and cultural sponsorship that focuses on dialog between the company and society. The starting point was the creation of an open space for exchange between regional artists and the globally active corporation. The concept was developed in 2017 and focused on a direct exchange between the company and the population of the metropolitan area Rhine-Neckar.

The Tor 4 project focused on five rounds between 2018 and 2023, in which socially relevant questions such as "How does freedom really work?" or "How does the new WE work?" were addressed. The aim was not only to promote art, but also to initiate a profound discourse on social issues.

The final round in 2023 dispensed with the usual jury selection process and instead opted for a random draw. Artists were randomly drawn into teams of three to develop projects together. This method was intended to emphasize a democratic and egalitarian approach, but it also presented challenges. The artists had to work in randomly selected groups, which was sometimes met with skepticism, especially since many participants were not familiar with the project's previous discourse.

The researchers accompanied this process ethnographically and analyzed the dynamics within the groups. Through the method of participant observation, they gained insights into the challenges and potentials that arose from the collaborative nature of the project. A particular focus was placed on the negotiation processes that arose through the coincidence of the team composition.

The Tor 4 project not only posed the question of the "new WE", but also of the way in which cultural promotion can be shaped. It offered a space for reflection on power structures in cultural funding and showed how freedom and lack of freedom manifest themselves in such processes. The lottery procedures enabled an experimental approach to cultural funding, which was perceived as both an opportunity and a challenge.

The project encourages reflection on established funding structures and the development of new forms of cooperation between art, business and society.