A city known for its architecture, music, and paintings switches focus to another art form for around one month at the Foto Wien photography festival.
- A long celebration of photography around Vienna
- Exhibitions, workshops, talks and more
- Next festival: Mar 9 to Mar 27, 2022
- 2021 event cancelled
- See also: Events in Vienna | Photo & Adventure Fair
What is Foto Wien all about?
Organised by Kunst Haus Wien (which includes the Hundertwasser museum), this is Vienna’s contribution to the European Month of Photography.
Consider Foto Wien a celebration of the art of photography, a showcase for local photographic initiatives and photographers, and a focus for all those with a love of the medium to come together at talks, workshops, exhibitions etc.
In its inaugural year, over 100 partners hosted events of one kind of another, but a festival centre also acted as a hub and headquarters.
2022 highlights
The 2019 festival was the first and its successor is slated for March 2022. As such, it will be a while before all programme details emerge.
In 2019, many of Vienna’s leading art museums, galleries, and other institutions served as festival partners, including the Museumsquartier, the Albertina, the Jewish Museum and the Natural History Museum.
Such is the large number of related exhibitions and events, that I’d simply urge you to browse the festival website to review the highlights when available.
The festival centre occupied the former Post Office Savings Bank (Postsparkasse), itself an iconic piece of architecture and design by Otto Wagner; the location should have retained the role for the cancelled 2021 events.
At the first Foto Wien, the HQ hosted talks and workshops but also:
- The chance to take a tour of the building
- Numerous exhibitions. For example:
- Bodyfiction: presenting the works of photographers nominated for the European Month of Photography Arendt Award 2019
- Curator’s Choice: featuring selected works from photographers in Austria
- White Flag: the results of a two-year photo project by Hanna Putz and Sophie Thun
- Urban zones: urban spaces and the interactions that take place within them
- Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation: the results of a five-year photographic documentation project
- Stefan Oláh’s large format photos of the Postsparkasse’s interior design
- The ten photos shortlisted for the photography prize awarded by the Rondo lifestyle magazine
- The 23 winners of the Wiener Wohnen photogaphy prize for photos of Vienna’s social housing projects
- Outstanding photobooks (which you can look through)
- …and many more!
- A pop-up photo lab for developing black & white negatives
- A pop-up book shop with a focus on limited edition photobooks
- A weekend photobook market
As you can tell, the festival centre alone was worth a visit for anyone interested in the medium.
2022 tickets and dates
Watch this space for 2022 info. All I know for sure now are the dates: March 9th to March 27th.
In 2019, anything happening at the Foto Wien festival centre was free. Exhibitions and events elsewhere may have required admission to the particular location.
The event skipped both 2020 and 2021, unfortunately (COVID).
How to get to Foto Wien
If the festival centre remains at the PSK building in 2022, then you’ll find it just off the Ring boulevard in the NE corner of Vienna’s old town.
Subway: it’s a short walk from either Stubentor (on the U3 line) or Schwedenplatz (U1 and U4 lines)
Tram/bus: take trams 1 or 2 to Julius-Raab-Platz
Address: Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna | Website