Fascinating artists’ studios

Artists open their studios to the public

Go where art is actually made, experience the atmosphere typical of an artist’s studio, see the artist’s personality materialize and art take shape. VIENNA ART WEEK gives you the unique opportunity to look behind the scenes of artistic work as over 70 well-known Viennese artists open their studios to the public to share their fascination with art. And that’s far from all: some studios will be host to talks with renowned curators, with artists giving a vivid insight into their work. (more...)

VIENNA ART WEEK 2012: Predicting Memories

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Already in its eighth year, the VIENNA ART WEEK art festival has become a crowd puller. Initiated by the DOROTHEUM and designed by Art Cluster Vienna, this year’s high-caliber program “Predicting Memories” explores the complex relationship between the present, past and future that underlies highly charged concepts like “future prediction” and “culture of memory.” In a series of exhibitions and panels in museums and art institutions, gallery and studio tours, performances and alternative space projects, the 2012 VIENNA ART WEEK program has trained its focus on art as a reservoir of memory and knowledge. (more...)

“We Have to Be Open to Those Reinterpretations”

Blog // Interview

VIENNAFAIR Goes East and West

“springerin” co-editor Christian Höller converses with VIENNAFAIR artistic directors Christina Steinbrecher and Vita Zaman about regional markets, the East and West categories and the name affix “The New Contemporary”. (more...)

Predicting Memories

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It’s almost a given in the year 2012: dealing with the relationship between memories and future predictions. Today we know that the prophesied doomsday on December 21, 2012, was a misinterpretation of the ancient Maya calendar, but still the countdown seems to continue. Are we moving towards the end of history or is this the start of a new decade? And to what degree do end-of-the-world scenarios act as a symbolic summary of our current, crisis-ridden era? (more...)

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The Eternal Pearl of the Danube

Blog // Kunststandort Wien

Fluctuations in aura and nostalgia

It is a well-known fact, particularly in the tourist industry, that the kind of aura enjoyed by “big” cities is generally composed of two things: a little urban reality and a lot of real or projected history. Those are the ingredients that – as a locally colored aura, so to speak – can be mixed and baked to form the brand that is “City.” The functional aspects, the things that make up the bulk of everyday life in the city, are of a matter of relatively little interest to city-hoppers and heavy-duty tourists. Who cares about the rent index or the looming municipal trade tax as long as the water runs, the subway keeps a reasonably regular schedule and the trash is removed at least now and again? (more...)

WIEN PRODUCTS COLLECTION

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Working with traditional houses to create a new product is a unique challenge for any designer. Exactly what distinguishes this kind of process from other, more conventional collaborations is something the two Polka designers and fellow designers Sebastian Menschhorn and Thomas Feichtner know all too well. They have created new designs for the WIEN PRODUCTS umbrella brand, an initiative by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce aiming to place products from traditional Viennese companies on the international market. (more...)

Spaces for the Viennese Design Vocabulary

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On the concept for a new installation in three exhibition rooms at the MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art

Now, more than 20 years after its opening in 1993, the content and design of the permanent collection at the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art (MAK) is being renovated in stages under its new director, Christoph Thun-Hohenstein. The initial phase includes a new installation for three large rooms on the first floor, which until now have been dedicated to Art Nouveau and Art Déco, to the Wiener Werkstätte as well as modern and contemporary architecture. (more...)