We’ve not treated the elixir of life well of late. But the Water Pressure exhibition at the MAK offers hope for the future of water resource management.
- Focus on design solutions, but…
- Adds art, history, culture & science
- Fascinating ideas and perspectives
- Runs May 21 – Sept 7, 2025
- Book your MAK museum tickets*
- See also:
- MAK museum overview
- Other design and art exhibitions
Water, design & art
(WaterFoundation, CloudFisher, since 2012, CloudFisher net (detail) © WaterFoundation)
Even Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner knew the challenges of water resource management back in the 1700s:
Water, water everywhere
Nor any drop to drink
And today?
Well, I don’t need to tell you about all the water-related crises faced across the globe. The issues touch on so many aspects of life: human health, agriculture, environmental protection & quality, etc.
Even Vienna, rich in Alpine water pipelines and hydrological protection measures, only narrowly escaped major flooding in the great storm of September 2024.
(Katsushika Hokusai, 36 views of Mount Fuji: “Under the Wave at Kanagawa,” Japan, ca. 1830, colour woodcut (Ukiyo-e—”Pictures of the flowing world”) MAK, KI 10988 © MAK/Georg Mayer)
The Water Pressure. Designing for the Future exhibition at the MAK offers a multifaceted perspective on this critical element.
At its heart, the exhibition presents innovative design approaches and solutions for improving water resource management, particularly in terms of sustainability and equitable access to clean supplies.
But Water Pressure spreads its wings to draw in contributions from art, science, history, and socioculture.
So you may find yourself viewing a 19th-century communal Viennese water tap or a Jugendstil water glass. A Hokusai woodcut from 1830 or a contemporary installation by Australian-based visual artist Diana Scherer. An architectural model or a documentary video. Among much more…
(Marjetica Potrc, The Time on the Lachlan River, 2022, mural, courtesy of Galerie Nordenhake Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City © Marjetica Potrc)
The displays fall into five themes that avoid a dry (ba dum tish) presentation of facts, figures, and concepts.
So Water Stories, for example, encourages us to value water as a cultural asset with a rich social history and intimate connection with peoples across the world. Water as much more than a biological component.
And everywhere you find ideas and projects that offer hope and showcase human ingenuity…often inspired by nature and/or indigenous systems. From Moroccan cloud nets that relieve girls of water collection tasks so they can go to school to biological dyeing processes that don’t pollute water supplies.
The rich diversity of the presentation arises through a cooperation between the MAK, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G), and Jane Withers Studio in London.
I’ll add more highlights when I’ve had a chance to visit.
Dates, tickets & tips
Take a deep dive (again, ba dum tish) into water from May 21st to September 7th, 2025. An entrance ticket from or for the MAK includes the special exhibitions within.
(Booking service provided by Tiqets.com*, who I am an affiliate of)
Environmental issues have become a common topic for museal treatment in Vienna. Consider, for example:
- The Kunst Haus Wien, which focuses on exhibitions for artists who tackle environmental and sustainability themes
- The Technisches Museum, which has a permanent Climate. Knowledge. Action! exhibition I found rather illuminating. Environmental themes run through a number of other displays in this museum of science and technology
And, should you wish to taste some of the lovely Viennese water mentioned earlier, pop over the road from the MAK to Café Prückel. Coffee served in Vienna almost always comes with a glass of water.
How to get there
Follow the travel tips at the end of my MAK overview page. But the museum lies next to the Stubentor subway station on the U3 line (and 2 tram line).
Address: Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna