Artist | Simon Brugner, Hugo Canoilas, Thomas Feuerstein, Anita Fuchs, Christina Gruber, Barbara Kapusta, Barbi Marković, Ralo Mayer, Flavia Mazzanti, Claudia Märzendorfer, Anna Paul, Marie Vermont, Stephanie Winter & Salon Hybrid
Date | June 28, 2023 – October 31, 2023
Location | around KUNST HAUS WIEN

Why not leave our old ways of thinking behind, shake off our inability to take action, and get out into the streets for a sustainable future well worth living? Well, in keeping with the climate movement creed, Kunst Haus Wien is doing just that: going beyond its Museum premises and out into the public space. Its aim? To make the invisible visible, bridge social distances, embrace proximity, and see and encounter in a new way its immediate surroundings and the people who live there. Over a period of four months, artistic interventions, numerous workshops, neighbourhood field trips, performances and discussions on ecological and socially relevant topics will be taking place in the museum’s neighbourhood. An exhibition itinerary consisting of twelve artistic positions and opening up diverse ecological perspectives on the present and the future provides the basis. The invited artists engage in various ways in a dialogue with the planet and its atmosphere, with the flora and fauna, the Danube Canal, the urban infrastructure and architecture, and with neighbours, visitors and passers-by.

What does our interaction with our living environment as well as our inanimate surroundings consist of? What new perspectives can we adopt to trigger processes of change? What can we learn from nature, of which we are a part, considering that we appear doggedly resolved to work against it? What might alternative scenarios for the present and future look like? How do we move around? How do we feed ourselves? How do we live together in societies, in cities, with other organisms, as part of nature? These are just some of the questions raised by the artistic works. With a motivation not to completely abandon this maltreated planet of ours, each of the projects opens up its own narrative while nonetheless coming together to form a multi-dimensional narrative cosmos. It reflects the two central global ecological crises of our time, namely global warming and species extinction; it tells of the transformation of our ecosystems, of alternative sources of food and energy, of new forms and rituals of living together, and of speculative future scenarios.

Close/d thus conquers new ground, i.e. the public space, so people are able to join in and take part – in passing, as it were. The public space becomes a laboratory for a new way of thinking about society and how it is integrated into the planetary ecosystem: a place that shows not only what already exists, but also what might still exist. Close/d seeks to stimulate a lively debate on ecological issues, on visions for inclusive coexistence in the world both today and tomorrow, and on the potential of artistic narratives to make the necessary socio-ecological change visible and tangible. After all, engaging with what lies beyond the Museum – with the space ‘at the centre of which we ourselves evolve, the environment, the surroundings’ (Georges Perec) – encourages us to open our eyes wide for visionary ways (out).

Co-Curator: Barbara Horvath

Exhibition booklet with curatorial essay, artist texts and a short story by author Barbi Marković

Exhibition Website