The Wien Museum MUSA’s Sold! exhibition takes you behind the scenes to discover the practicalities and challenges of running and exhibiting a municipal contemporary art collection.
- Recent art acquisitions also on display
- Works by numerous local artists
- Cooperation with the city’s MA7 Dept. of Culture
- Runs Sept 26, 2024 – Feb 23, 2025
- Free entry
- See also:
- MUSA overview
- Contemporary art exhibitions in Vienna
Answers to Questions
(Michèle Pagel, Promise, 2018 © Michèle Pagel; press photo TimTom, Wien Museum. The use of adhesive tape in the installation raises long-term maintenance questions for conservators)
The famous metaphor has the swan all blissful grace on top, while pedalling furiously below.
As we walk through art exhibitions, few of us probably concern ourselves with the logistics and management processes behind the displays.
In my case, I’m mostly focused on not confusing a post-modern architectural installation with an exit door (as happened once, in case you were wondering about my credibility).
The Sold! exhibition becomes a true eye opener, then: a look beneath the surface of a municipal contemporary art collection.
A moment’s thought brings up a whole host of questions. For example:
- Why does a city like Vienna (through its MA7 Department of Culture) buy art in the first place? And how are purchase decisions made, given the dynamic and diverse nature of art?
- How does it all work from the artist’s point of view and what does a sale mean for them?
- How and where does the city (through the Wien Museum) then store and display the acquired works? Challenge enough when we just had paintings, drawings and robust sculptures. But what about fragile installations, textiles, performance pieces or digital creations?
(View of the exhibition, which combines informative text displays with recent art acquisitions; press photo: Klaus Pichler, Wien Museum)
Sold! offers up answers to these kind of questions in text displays and subtitled videos with the help of the professionals and artists involved. It also presents these insights alongside highlights of MA7’s acquisitions over the last five years or so.
For example, we discover how purchase policies seek to compensate for commercial biases in the art market, giving opportunity to those disadvantaged by that market. And we see how the collection focus has moved from the graphic arts and paintings to photos, videos and installations.
The insights prove rather enlightening.
Consider, for example, Michèle Pagel’s 2018 Promise installation. This makes use of adhesive tape, which degrades through time. How much do you intervene in the future? What level of maintenance makes sense for all the stakeholders involved?
Or reflect on Maja Vukoje’s 2016 Dolomiti, which has sugar as one of its components. Unlike Vukoje, Rembrandt never had to worry about making his art ant proof.
In other words, we see the whole swan: the actual works of art as well as the processes, policies and challenges behind the transition from studio to storage to exhibition hall and back to storage.
The artists so featured live and work primarily in Vienna, thus ensuring we get a strong taste of the local art scene, too, with all its innovation and creativity.
Dates, tickets & tips
Enjoy a peek into the practicalities behind art collections from September 26th, 2024 to February 23rd, 2025. Entry to the MUSA and exhibition is free.
If you’d like to see more contemporary art in Vienna, then this page has plenty of suggestions.
You can even take some home with you (temporarily, if you’re a local). The MUSA also houses the Artothek, which loans out graphical works from the Wien Museum art collection for a small fee.
How to get to the art
Follow the travel tips at the bottom of the main Wien Museum MUSA article. The location is across the road from the very central Rathaus (city hall).
Address: Felderstraße 6-8, 1010 Vienna