NAVIGATING ANGST: What Role Can Museums and Art Institutions Play Today? – Part 2

VIENNA ART WEEK is organized by Art Cluster Vienna, an association representing Vienna’s leading art institutions. We asked our members: What does this year’s theme, “Navigating Angst,” mean to them? Here are their answers.

Architecture is always, in part, a matter of navigating uncertainty. It responds to ecological, social, and political crises not only through form but also through attitude: How do we want to live together when familiar orders begin to crumble?

‘Navigating Angst’ addresses central questions of our work at the Architekturzentrum Wien. Here, anxiety does not appear as stagnation, but as a sensorium—as a potential starting point for new forms of thinking, planning, and acting.

Architecture, in particular, can open up spaces in which complexity is not simplified, but rather collectively endured and made productive.

Art does not offer simple answers to the uncertainties of our time. However, it can create spaces where fears become visible, contradictions can be negotiated, and new perspectives become conceivable.

This is precisely where its particular strength lies: not in resolving ambivalences, but in allowing them to become productive. A museum should provide an open framework for this — for diverse experiences and voices, as well as for perspectives that have long been marginalized.

For in a time of multiple crises and uncertainties, openness and a diversity of voices are essential prerequisites for a vibrant democratic society and for dealing with fear in ways that go beyond radicalization or withdrawal.

We live in an age of anxiety and the art of our time reflects this. It points to systemic gaps and failures and calls upon us to be mindful and do what we can for each other.

I see our museums as places where we can be grounded by our encounters with art and artists and by time taken to be alone, to be with others or to be creative.

Forests without birdsong. Rivers without water. Withering crops. The ecological crisis is frightening for many.

Art cannot save the world, but it can offer orientation when certainties unravel. It creates space for new visions of the future and understands hope as a creative force for cultural renewal.

For the KunstHausWien, ‘Navigating Angst’ means focusing on possibilities—on the potential for growth and regeneration at the heart of our exhibition Seeds.

With their rich collections of historical and contemporary art, museums—as venues for discourse—are ideal settings for engaging with current issues, navigating the tension between courage and fear, depression and euphoria.

Although fear is often considered a poor guide, primal fears frequently determine our survival. Especially in times of crisis, it is important to counteract these fears.

As places for reflection on these and other complex topics, museums strengthen resilience in dealing with these challenges.

Re: ‘Navigating Angst’:

Since art is a form of dialogue and its reception can spark reflection, adaptation, criticism, rejection, and resistance, it seems to open up viable paths – not so much for dealing with fear itself, but rather for using it to cope with the current sense of unease.

Angst doesn’t just disappear — but you can learn to work with it. Art helps us question what we take for granted and see things from new perspectives.

Our institution sees itself as a place where uncertainty isn’t a hindrance, but is used productively. For us, ‘Navigating Fear’ means asking questions, shifting perspectives—and growing wiser together in the face of uncertainty.