As in summer 2021, the construction site that is currently the Wien Museum turns selected surfaces over to street art for summer 2022. This time, the exhibition addresses the idea of urban cultures and those public spaces that form an interface between a city’s inhabitants in all their diversity.
- Features work by David Leitner, Perk_up & Feminist Killjoy
- Runs Jun 9 – Oct 2, 2022
- Accessible 24/7 and free
- See also:
- The Wien Museum
- Selected other past Wien Museum exhibitions
- Current contemporary art exhibitions in Vienna
New street art
Think of art and Vienna and your mind might turn to Bruegel.
Or Klimt.
Or any number of masterpieces from a time when street art largely meant moustached students painting your portrait for a guinea and a sandwich. (Possibly.)
But cast your eye over exhibition listings for major art institutions here, and modern & contemporary art probably counts as the largest category.
Equally, for all its Imperial history, Vienna is a modern city with almost 2 million inhabitants and significant cultural diversity.
As such, it should be no surprise to find a thriving street art movement.
Across most of summer 2022, the Wien Museum‘s outdoor exhibition makes use of the museum’s current existence as a construction site to give more space to that movement.
The theme is urban cultures; the interface between people in all their variety leads to innovation, understanding and creativity, but also to conflicts of one kind or another.
Urban Cultures addresses this confusion that is public space, where a city must square a circle. Inclusivity without friction. Discourse without confrontation. Smooth waters without exclusivity.
Participating artists are David Leitner, Perk_up, and the Feminist Killjoy Vienna collective.
The works only cover a few panels, but they make a walk to the Karlskirche church or Musikverein concert hall a little more intriguing.
Dates & tickets
The exhibition runs in two parts:
- June 9th to July 31st, 2022 (art by David Leitner and Perk_up)
- August 11th to October 2nd, 2022 (art by Feminist Killjoy)
Pop along just before each start and you may find the artists at work.
As an open-air exhibition, entrance is 24/7 and free.
If that gives you a taste for more street art, then look out for:
- The Donaukanal: an arm of the Danube that skirts the city centre. The banks along much of the urban parts of its route offer a concrete canvas for street artists
- Calle Libre: an early August festival of “urban aesthetics” that curates large street art projects throughout the city. In 2022, the Regeneration festival focuses on one site and includes music, street food, etc.
Equally, the Albertina Modern museum across the road from the Wien Museum construction site has top-class modern and contemporary art exhibitions, including a huge Ai Weiwei retrospective running for most of the same time as Urban Cultures.
How to get there
The Karlsplatz home to the Wien Museum has a huge transport hub beneath it that connects to the U4, U1 and U2 subway lines (the latter in the form of a replacement tram service while subway construction work goes on beneath the surface).
Exit Karlsplatz station at the Resselpark end and walk across toward the Karlskirche church: Look for the construction site fence.
Address: Karlsplatz, 1040 Vienna