Given the events of 2020/2021, we could all do with a bit of colour in our lives. So you might call the your age and my age and the age of the rainbow installation at Belvedere a particularly timely intervention.
- 70m wall of rainbows drawn by young children
- Found outdoors in the gardens of Belvedere Palace
- Free to view
- Cooperation with the New York-based artist, Udo Rondinone
- Jun 13 – Nov 1, 2021
- See also:
- Contemporary art exhibitions in Vienna
Rondinone and The Age of the Rainbow
(The wall itself)
The famous Swiss sculptor and painter, Udo Rondinone, has a long history with rainbow motifs and colours, which have featured prominently in much of his art. And a long association with Austria’s capital, too, where he studied, for example, at the University of Applied Arts.
The New York-based artist’s work has also appeared before in Vienna, for example at the Kunsthalle and Secession, with the first-ever solo museum exhibition in Austria (Ugo Rondinone. Nude in the landscape) due in late 2021 at Belvedere 21.
Before then, though, Rondinone and Belvedere cooperate on a new project under the title your age and my age and the age of the rainbow.
The long outdoor installation features a 70m wall of rainbows, each one drawn by a child aged between 6 and 12. The collaboration involved the participation of Kindergartens from all over the country; 1600 children contributed.
The public nature of the work fits well with one of Rondinone’s philosophies of art. In an interview with ArtDependence Magazine, he once noted:
It’s the best art education you can give, if you distribute your art as wide as possible. And public art has this quality, it can be seen by everyone, regardless of their background.
Indeed, the artist’s Seven Magic Mountains installation in Nevada has become an Instagram favourite.
Rondinone already implemented the rainbow wall concept in a 2017 installation along the front of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow.
The Russian version featured 1500 rainbow drawings by children, with Our Magic Hour spelled out in rainbow format on the museum’s rooftop in the recognisably-Rondinone style.
Nor is the one-time Vienna student a stranger to historical locations like the Baroque Belvedere.
Rondinone’s tree sculptures, for example, have appeared in Vienna’s Theseus Temple, the Place Vendôme in Paris, and the Paradeplatz in Zurich. And his evocation of the solar wheel (The Sun) stood just behind the Apollo Fountain in the gardens of Versailles for the 2017/2018 Voyage d’Hiver exhibition.
Dates, tickets & tips
Enjoy all the colours of the rainbow from June 13th, 2021 to November 1st, 2021.
This outdoor installation appears in the gardens that stretch down from Upper Belvedere toward the south and Belvedere 21. These gardens are accessible without a ticket during opening times, since you only pay to enter the palace or gallery buildings.
How to get to the exhibition
Follow the instructions in the Directions to Belvedere article and head for the Upper Belvedere end of the complex and beyond. At 70m long, I suspect the rainbow installation ought to be easy to find.
Address: Prinz Eugen-Straße 27, 1030 Vienna