Program

Writer and art educator Simon Nagy (trafo.K) has developed a special tour inspired by this year’s VIENNA ART WEEK theme, taking participants to selected sites in Vienna’s city centre:

With the slogan “No fear”, we remind each other not to be intimidated by the divisive, isolating and scaremongering politics of the far-right. But what if we turn our gaze the other way for a moment – and ask: What fears live rent-free in the heads and structures that are driving the current rise of fascism?

This question builds the core of the city walk. For the politics of brutalisation, cruelty and violence, which are gaining strength worldwide, ultimately spring from paranoid fear itself: fear of dissolution, fear of plurality, fear of difference. These are abstract terms; yet their effects manifest themselves quite clearly in Vienna’s urban landscape.

After having sharpened our fear-critical gaze on Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Last Judgement’ triptych in the Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, we step out into the November daze and visit three such manifestations together: the Benko ruins on Mariahilfer Straße, the Habsburg skulls in the Kapuzinergruft, and finally the memorial to Karl Lueger at the Stubentor, which has already been re-labelled a ‘disgrace’.

At these three very different locations, we will discuss what those in power are afraid of – and how we might help to turn their fears and our desires into reality.

Due to limited capacity, registration is required. Click here to register!

With the kind support of the Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Imperial Crypt. 

The guided tour of the exhibition Liminal Spaces (5 November–5 December 2026) offers an insight into the multimedia work of artist Bernd Oppl, which fundamentally explores the uncertainty (of perception) in an elusive world characterised by stark contrasts.

The works on display – lightbox photographs, dioramas, videos and spatial objects – explore the phenomenon of places that exist “between” states or meanings.

Liminal spaces are spaces that appear familiar, yet simultaneously feel uncanny, surreal and otherworldly, as they are deserted or torn from their normal context. Or because they are suddenly overwhelmed by chaotic events. Through his works, in which realities intermingle, Oppl subtly succeeds in addressing existential feelings, inner states and fears.

This is accompanied acoustically by a sound installation developed specifically for the exhibition, which uses repetitive sound patterns that never reach a clear conclusion, thereby reinforcing the sense of liminality.

PLEASE NOTE

Entrance via Maria-Kuhn-Gasse 8, 1100 Vienna

As part of VIENNA ART WEEK, the curators invite you to an exclusive guided tour of the exhibition Feminist Futures Forever at Belvedere 21.

The focus is on the diversity of artistic practices. Feminist demands, sociopolitical impacts, and diverse temporalities are interwoven: Each concern engages critically with history and the present to address the conditions of an imagined future. Feminist Futures Forever follows this principle and, through a retrospective look at the 1985 exhibition Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn, brings international, intersectional, and cross-generational positions into dialogue with one another.

The exhibition features works by artists ranging from the feminist avant-garde to the youngest generation. The focus is on artworks that address sociopolitical, gender-specific, and ecological issues. The targeted expansion of the Belvedere’s collection also plays a key role in this context. The exhibited works critically reexamine the past, engage with our present, and make demands for a shared future. In this sense, the exhibition’s title should also be understood as a call for new possible perspectives: Feminist Futures Forever!

Curated by Christiane Erharter and Stefanie Reisinger.
Assistant curators: Anna Ewa Dyrko and Andrea Kopranovic

Registration required: Click here to sign up.

Further information about the exhibition:

Feminist Futures Forever

November 5, 2026 – March 7, 2027, Belvedere 21

Avant-garde and Academicism aims to give a new twist to an age-old debate. Academicism is not seen as a pejorative term for everything that is outdated in art, nor is avant-garde perceived as having a monopoly on all that is new. Rather, it seeks to reveal the creative tension between these two concepts, both from an in-depth historical perspective and its place within the field of contemporary art.

The title of the exhibition alludes to a paradox: Giorgio Vasari, who was directly involved in the founding of the first modern art academy, namely the Accademia del Disegno in Florence (1563), regarded Michelangelo’s works as the unsurpassable apogee of art, achieved for the first time since Antiquity.

That perfection, in a sense tantamount to the end of art as such, represented the starting point for the academy, the essential purpose of which is to provide the divinely inspired artist with an academically accomplished counterpart capable of emulating this great role model without necessarily having to be a creative genius himself. Accordingly, the celebrations marking Michelangelo’s funeral (1564) represented the Accademia’s first public activity.

Clearly distinct from the traditional model of the bottega and its guild-based organisational structure, the academy positioned itself within the ambit of modern institutional structures precisely because of this division between ideal and efficiency. In doing so, it also triggered the anti-academic reactions discernible since the 18th century and, later, its equivalent expression in the avant-garde.

The exhibition aims to trace this fundamental interplay between the founding of academies, the criticism thereof and academy reform through selected examples, through to the present day. That interplay can be understood as the truly productive and dynamic moment of modern art; it is evident in individual artistic practices as well as in theoretical reflections and institutional structures.

Works by Giorgio Vasari, Sandro Botticelli, Titiano Vecellio known as Titian, Artemisia Gentileschi, Charles Le Brun, Nicolas Poussin, Joachim von Sandrart, Pierre Subleyras, Januarius Zick, Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Heinrich Friedrich Füger, William Hogarth, Gustave Courbet, Francis Picabia, Roy Lichtenstein, Markus Lüpertz, Chris Reinecke, Jörg Immendorff, Katharina Sieverding, Louise Lawler, Vaginal Davis, Stephan Dillemuth, Andy Hope 1930, Gunter Reski, Hong Zeiss et al.

The original paintings and graphic works are complemented by the classical academic practice of copying – in our case, through old and new copies of High Renaissance and Baroque paintings – as well as by reinterpretations by contemporary artists such as Abel Auer, Alice Creischer, Thomas Eggerer, Michaela Eichwald, Abdulnasser Gharem, Stephan Janitzky, Jutta Koether, Birgit Megerle, and Heimo Zobernig.

Registration required:

Send an email to kunstsammlungen@akbild.ac.at (click here to send e-mail) or call 01 588 16 2201.

This major show undertakes an exciting juxtaposition of the 20th century’s two most important figurative painters: Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon.

Registration required: FULLY BOOKED.

The ALBERTINA is honoring Franz West (1947–2012) with a retrospective to mark his 80th birthday. The nonconformist artist, known for his rebellious nature, combined with stubbornness and humor, was featured several times at Documenta and the Venice Biennale, and was awarded the Golden Lion in 2011.

Registration required: Click here to sign up 

EVENT LANGUAGE: GERMAN

Seeds are the very foundation of our life. They provide us with the nutriments and raw materials we need, they embody biological diversity, they preserve and pass on regional knowledge and cultural heritage, and they stand for hope, change and renewal. The exhibition Seeds. Reclaiming Roots, Sowing Futures explores the multilayered meanings of seeds as a mirror of our relationship to the earth and one another.

Works of fourteen international artists tell of disappearance and preservation, of loss and regeneration, of the poetic as well as political potential intrinsic to mutual concern and shared growing. The exhibition forges links between art, ecology and activism and invite us to reflect on possible futures

The guided tour with assistant curator Stephan Kuss provides background information on the artists’ works and the making of the exhibition.

Artists: Ackroyd & Harvey, Maria Thereza Alves, Alexandra Baumgartner, Tue Greenfort, Kapwani Kiwanga, Dominique Koch, Jumana Manna, Christian Kosmas Mayer, Marzia Migliora, Lucía Pizzani, Michaela Putz, Cecilia Vicuña, Munem Wasif

Meeting Point: 3rd floor

Due to limited capacity (25 pax), registration is required: Click here to register.

EVENT LANGUAGE: GERMAN

The tour offers insights into the exhibition’s concept and highlights the diverse connections between Samsonow’s artistic practice and selected works from the Heidi Horten Collection.

With this major solo exhibition, the Heidi Horten Collection is dedicating its first comprehensive exhibition to the artist and philosopher Elisabeth von Samsonow (*1956, Germany; living in Austria since 1995), presenting her work in all its artistic diversity and intellectual depth.

Sculptures, paintings, drawings, films and a site-specific installation offer an insight into a practice that moves between art, philosophy and anthropology. Early works enter into dialogue with current groups of works, allowing visitors to experience the development of an extraordinary artistic and theoretical position.

At the heart of Samsonow’s work lies the earth as the bearer of history, life, energy and collective memory. Her works take up cultural-historical motifs and translate them into an independent contemporary visual language. In particular, her monumental wooden sculptures, including works made from a thousand-year-old lime tree, explore questions of origin, physicality, transformation and community.

Registration required: FULLY BOOKED.

The tour takes visitors through the current exhibition on the theme of animals and humans. The exhibition explores aspects of coexistence, examines differences and similarities, and investigates the boundary between humans and animals. The show includes works of art from various eras, cultures, and media. In addition to pieces from the collections of Dom Museum Wien, the exhibition features national and international loans as well as works commissioned specifically for the exhibition.

Registration required: FULLY BOOKED.

EVENT LANGUAGE: GERMAN

As part of this year’s VIENNA ART WEEK, themed “Navigating Angst,” Dom Museum Wien invites visitors to a thematic guided tour that explores the polarities of fear and courage as dimensions of experience in art and contemporary life.

Museum Director Johanna Schwanberg and systemic psychotherapist and psychotraumatologist Cristina Budroni will guide participants through the permanent and special exhibition at Dom Museum Wien. In engaging with precious works of Christian art, primal fears such as illness, pain, loss, and death come into focus, as does the longing for healing, happiness, and eternal life.

The special exhibition which is dedicated to the ambivalent relationship between humans and animals, expands this perspective to include questions of disgust, projection, and (lack of) empathy toward other living beings.

At the intersection of aesthetic experience and psychological reflection, art becomes a space where the fundamental human emotion of fear is not only made visible but can also be renegotiated.

Cristina Budroni, born in Cagliari, Sardinia.

Systemic psychotherapist, trauma therapist, and hypnotherapist in private practice. Psychogerontological work with Holocaust survivors and their subsequent generations. Areas of focus: trauma, transgenerational transmission of trauma, particularly in the context of migration, and intercultural psychotherapy.

Registration required: click here to sign up

Reflections on selected works from the exhibition Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism with the curators Ivan Ristić and Kerstin Jesse

Faces reveal “visions,” bodies enact psychological abysses, attraction and repulsion lie close together. Even this brief overview of the subjects suggests how insistently the radical representatives of Viennese fin-de-siècle painting replaced the person with personality. Physical space, too, acquired a new intensity: whether in Young Woman before Birdcage by Broncia Koller-Pinell (c. 1907), which evokes thoughts of an imprisoned self, or in Egon Schiele’s fragile nude models, suspended in a vacuum.

Around 1900, the booming imperial city of Vienna had become large enough to stand for an entire world in upheaval. Symptoms of a crisis that would precede the catastrophe of the First World War were apparent everywhere: traditional values were being questioned, while fears went hand in hand with resentment. As Carl E. Schorske observed using Vienna as an example, “the man of reason had to yield his place to a richer, but also more dangerous and unstable creature, the homo psychologicus.” Art freed itself from the primacy of beauty and ventured onto the playground of the psyche; within both social and individual disorientation, people recognized a previously unimagined poetic potential.

Registration required: FULLY BOOKED. 

Join the co-curator Anne Zühlke for a guided tour of the VIENNA ART WEEK 2026 exhibition.

Registration required: click here to sign up.

About the exhibition

This year’s theme provides the starting point for HOUSE OF NAVIGATING ANGST, an exhibition curated by Robert Punkenhofer, Artistic Director of the VIENNA ART WEEK, and co-curator Anne Zühlke.

The exhibition is presented in a striking late-19th-century building in Vienna’s 15th district, which, before undergoing renovation, will be transformed into the VIENNA ART WEEK’s festival headquarters for one week.

Spanning four levels—from the basement to the top floor— the exhibition brings together works by 30 international artists. It approaches the phenomenon of angst from different perspectives, while also making the building itself part of the artistic exploration.

Artists
Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola · James Gregory Atkinson · Paulina Emilia Aumayr · Eliza Ballesteros · Marco-Augusto Basso · Billie Clarken · Marlene Coates · Angela de la Cruz · Sophie Dvořák · Melanie Ebenhoch · Philipp Fleischmann & Mohammed H. · Terry Fox · Kiki Furlan & Can Denzer · Onur Gökmen · Daniel Guzmán · Sophie Hirsch · Edgar Honetschläger · Thilo Jenssen · Nanna Kaiser · Chantal Kaufmann · Alina Kleytman · Alfred Kubin · Malin Kuht · Daniel Kurth · Miro Kuzmanović · Isa Melsheimer · Miao Ying · Laura Nitsch · Stine Ølgod · Tony Oursler · Viktor Petrov · Doris Piwonka · Aura Roig · Clemens Tschurtschenthaler · Emil Urbanek · Kara Walker · Helen Weber

The building is kindly being made available for interim use by VIENNA ART WEEK partner:

“Managing Fear: The Economics of Salvation” — A Guided Tour on the Expectations of Salvation in the Work of Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer’s Altarpiece of All Saints is considered one of the most significant works of the European Renaissance. The painting offers a glimpse into premodern strategies for securing the future.

This tour examines the altarpiece not only as a masterpiece of religious art, but also as an expression of a society that lived with existential uncertainty, illness, death, and fear for the salvation of one’s own soul.

At the heart of this and other paintings are questions of the expectation of salvation, provision for the afterlife, and spiritual economy: How did “salvation” function in a world without social security? What role did good deeds, charitable endowments, and piety play as forms of symbolic investment in eternal life?

The All Saints’ Altarpiece thus appears as a model of premodern risk management, in which religious practice, social prestige, and hope for divine grace were closely intertwined.

The tour combines art-historical analysis with cultural and economic-historical perspectives and demonstrates how much notions of security, return on investment, and the future already shaped thinking around 1500—albeit under different circumstances than today.

Registration required: kunstvermittlung@khm.at (Subject: Vienna Art Week) (click here to sign up)

Independent art spaces and projects are important program partners of the VIENNA ART WEEK. Get to know new art spaces during guided walks by art experts!

In a guided walk Pia Wamsler (art historian, cultural worker, and curator) will give an insight into the following art spaces:

• Künstlerhaus Vereinigung
• Operngasse 4
• DAS WEISSE HAUS

Meeting point: 

Künstlerhaus Vereinigung – Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Vienna

End point:

DAS WEISSE HAUS – Hegelgasse 14, 1010 Vienna

Total walking distance: 16 min

Due to limited capacity, registration is required.

Register: Click here to register!

Independent art spaces and projects are important program partners of the VIENNA ART WEEK. Get to know new art spaces during guided walks by art experts!

In a guided walk Paula Berens (art mediator) will give an insight into the following projects:

• philomena+
• Moos Atelier
• flat1

Meeting point: 

philomena+ – Heinestraße 40, 1020 Vienna

End point:

flat1 – Radetzkystraße 4, 1030 Vienna

Total walking distance: 31 min

Due to limited capacity, registration is required.

Register: Click here to register!

Event kindly supported by:

Independent art spaces and projects are important program partners of the VIENNA ART WEEK. Get to know new art spaces during guided walks by art experts!

In a guided walk Aliza Peisker (art mediator) will give an insight into the following projects:

• Jugend am Werk / Werd:art
• Mz*Baltazar’s Laboratory
• Glass Pavilion at the Bezirksmuseum Brigittenau

Meeting point: 

Jugend am Werk – Im Werd 19, 1020 Vienna

End point:

Glaspavillion – 20. Bezirksmuseum Brigittaplatz, 1200 Vienna

Total walking distance: 28 min

Due to limited capacity, registration is required.

Register here: Click here to register!

Event kindly supported by:

In a guided walk Pia Wamsler (cultural worker, curator, and art historian) will lead through the galleries

• Fotogalerie
• kex – kunsthalle exnergasse
• Kunstzelle
• Intakt- Internationale Aktionsgemeinschaft bildender Künstlerinnen
• Frau* schafft Raum

There, visitors will get an overview of the galleries, as well as the exhibitions on display during VIENNA ART WEEK.

Meeting point: 

Fotogalerie – Währinger Str. 59, 1090 Vienna

End point:

Frau* schafft Raum – Nußdorfer Str. 4, 1090 Vienna

Total walking distance: 5 min.

Due to limited capacity, registration is required. 

Registration: Click here to register!

Event kindly supported by:

Katja Stecher (curator and art educator) will lead through the galleries

• Galerie Krinzinger
• Galerie Lukas Feichtner
• Galerie 3

There, visitors will get an overview of the galleries, as well as the exhibitions on display during VIENNA ART WEEK.

Meeting point: 

Galerie Krinzinger – Seilerstätte 16, 1010 Vienna

End point:

Galerie 3 – Schleifmühlgasse 3, 1040 Vienna

Total walking distance: 20 min

Due to limited capacity, registration is required.

Registration required: Click here to register!

In a guided walk Elena Blum (cultural worker, writer, and art historian) will lead through the galleries

• Galerie Sturm & Schober
• Galerie Ernst Hilger
• Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder

There, visitors will get an overview of the galleries, as well as the exhibitions on display during VIENNA ART WEEK.

Meeting point: 

Galerie Sturm & Schober – Kohlmarkt 9, 1010 Vienna

End point:

Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder – Grünangergasse 1, 1010 Vienna

Total walking distance: 13 min.

Due to limited capacity, registration is required. 

Register here: Click here to register!

This year, eight guided tours will again lead through selected studios in the Vienna´s diverse districts. Guided by art mediators, visitors have the rare opportunity to get an insight into the working world of the artists and to enter into a dialogue with them.

“District Tour 1” leads through the 7th district – and into the studios of:

• Kamen Stoyanov
• Laia Fabre
• Doris Piwonka
• Sophie Ramm
• Blanca Amorós

Meeting point: Lindengasse 46, 1070 Vienna

Ending: Neustiftgasse 62, 1070 Vienna

Walking distance: 20 min.

Due to limited capacity, registration is required. Click here to register.

This year, eight guided tours will again lead through selected studios in the Vienna´s diverse districts. Guided by art mediators, visitors have the rare opportunity to get an insight into the working world of the artists and to enter into a dialogue with them.

“District Tour 4” leads through the 3rd & 4th district – and into the studios of:

• Maria Hanl
• Marie-France Goerens
• Julia Zastava
• Joseph Marsteurer

Meeting point: Posthorngasse 8, 1030 Vienna

Ending: Schäffergasse 13a, 1040 Vienna

Walking distance: 28 min.

Due to limited capacity, registration is required.

Registration required: Click here to register.

Event kindly supported by:

Eight tours will once again lead through selected studios across the districts this year. During guided studio visits, visitors have the rare opportunity to gain insights into the artists’ working worlds and to engage in conversation with them.

“District Tour 5” leads through the 2nd, 9th and 20th District, visiting the studios of:

• Luiza Furtado
• Marianne Lang
• Anna Vasof
• Assunta Abdel Azim Mohamed & Matthias Ramsey

Meeting point: Karajangasse 15, 1200 Vienna

End point: Kolingasse 9, 1090 Vienna

Total walking time: 34 min.

Due to limited capacity, registration is required.

Registration required: Click here to register!

Event kindly supported by:

This year, eight guided tours will again lead through selected studios in the Vienna’s diverse districts. Guided by art mediators, visitors have the rare opportunity to get an insight into the working world of the artists and to enter into a dialogue with them.

“District Tour 2” leads through the 4th and 5th district – and into the studios of:

• FULTERER SCHERRER
• Fabian Köttl
• Emma Peinhopf
• Jörg Reissner

Meeting point: Viktorgasse 22, 1040 Vienna

Ending: Anzengrubergasse 26, 1050 Vienna

Total walking time: 20 min.

Due to limited capacity, registration is required.

Registration required: Click here to register!

Event kindly supported by:

This year, eight guided tours will again lead through selected studios in the Vienna’s diverse districts. Guided by art mediators, visitors have the rare opportunity to get an insight into the working world of the artists and to enter into a dialogue with them.

“District Tour 3” leads through the 16th & 17th district – and into the studios of:

• Elena Kristofor
• Gudrun Lenk-Wane
• Marlene Heidinger
• Christoph Voglbauer

Meeting point: Rosensteingasse 25, 1170 Vienna

Ending: Römergasse 38, 1160 Vienna

Total walking time: 22 min.

Due to limited capacity, registration is required.

Registration required: Click here to register!

Millions of people worldwide are affected by war, displacement, and violence. For those who have the “privilege” of being confronted only with media images of these conflicts, the militarization in Europe is increasingly giving real substance to fears of being personally affected. How can one manage to remain capable of taking action despite all this?

A substantive examination of the foundations of the threat of war can be a first step toward better assessing it. It should be noted that this threat is part of a history of violence closely linked to colonial expansion and, consequently, to the emergence of the modern capitalist world order.

The special exhibition Raining Blood: Photography and Arms Trafficking at the Weltmuseum Wien uses photographs, historical objects, and archival materials to explore the interconnections between the arms trade, colonial violence, and war around 1900. In doing so, it offers perspectives on the historical processes that have had a lasting impact on today’s global power structure.

Building on the exhibition, this educational program explores the role of the arms trade and colonial wars—such as the genocide in German South West Africa—in the formation of the modern world system. Together, we will examine how colonial continuities continue to have an impact today and how historical contexts can help us better understand current conflicts.

Registration required: kulturvermittlung@weltmuseumwien.at (click here to sign up).

Further information:Raining Blood: Photography and Arms Trafficking

For many decades, the Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture has been providing studios for visual artists. Currently, subsidized studios are allocated at the two locations on Westbahnstraße and Wattgasse, and the studios in the Prater are managed by the ministry.

A total of 48 studios for artists in these fields are allocated through a publicly announced open call and following a juried selection process by an independent panel of experts.

In addition, under the recently launched program “PART International Art Residency Austria”, six project studios in the historic Prater Studios are available to support international collaborations.

During a guided tour, Ruth Horak and Katja Stecher will offer insights into the work of participating artists. The tour will include visits to the studios of:

• Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan
• Edin Zenun Fakovik
• Robert Gruber
• Doris Theres Hofer
• Julia Haugeneder
• Lena Violetta Leitner
• Irina Lotarevich
• Jörg Piringer

Registration required: click here to sign up.

For many decades, the Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture has been providing studios for visual artists. Currently, subsidized studios are allocated at the two locations on Westbahnstraße and Wattgasse, and the studios in the Prater are managed by the ministry.

A total of 48 studios for artists in these fields are allocated through a publicly announced open call and following a juried selection process by an independent panel of experts.

During a guided tour, Maria Holter and Klaus Speidel will offer insights into the work of participating artists at the Praterateliers. The tour will include visits to the studios of:

• Thomas Hörl & Peter Kozek
• Walter Kölbl
• Evelyn Loschy
• Lotte Lyon
• Claudia Märzendorfer
• Hannes Mlenek

Registration required: click here to sign up.

For many decades, the Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture has been providing studios for visual artists. Currently, subsidized studios are allocated at the two locations on Westbahnstraße and Wattgasse, and the studios in the Prater are managed by the ministry.

A total of 48 studios for artists in these fields are allocated through a publicly announced open call and following a juried selection process by an independent panel of experts.

During a guided tour, Maria Holter and Klaus Speidel will offer insights into the work of participating artists at the Praterateliers. The tour will include visits to the studios of:

• Thomas Hörl & Peter Kozek
• Walter Kölbl
• Evelyn Loschy
• Lotte Lyon
• Claudia Märzendorfer
• Hannes Mlenek

Registration required: click here to sign up.

For many decades, the Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture has been providing studios for visual artists. Currently, subsidized studios are allocated at the two locations on Westbahnstraße and Wattgasse, and the studios in the Prater are managed by the ministry.

A total of 48 studios for artists in these fields are allocated through a publicly announced open call and following a juried selection process by an independent panel of experts.

In addition, under the recently launched program “PART International Art Residency Austria”, six project studios in the historic Prater Studios are available to support international collaborations.

During a guided tour, Ruth Horak and Katja Stecher will offer insights into the work of participating artists. The tour will include visits to the studios of:

• Eva Eichinger
• Manuel Gorkiewicz
• Kerstin von Gabain
• Ernst Yohji Jäger
• Elisabeth Kihlström
• Doris Piwonka
• Michael Strasser

Registration required: click here to sign up.