As part of Curators’ Agenda: Vienna 2025, a group exhibition will be created on the ground floor of DAS WEISSE HAUS, running from November 2025 to January 2026. The exhibition will be collaboratively developed by a group of emerging international curators and will present works by art students and alumni of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, who critically engage with key issues of our time. The starting point for the curatorial work is the 2025 yearly topic of DAS WEISSE HAUS: SUCCESS.

The exhibition explores the societal construction of success and the various, often problematic, meanings attributed to this concept in contemporary culture. Success is not understood as an objective, neutral goal, but rather as a normalized system of expectations that emphasizes material accumulation, social status symbols, and perpetual self-optimization – thereby reinforcing existing inequalities and exclusion. The artistic positions address these dominant narratives of success, question the structural constraints of capitalist societies, and open up alternative perspectives on individual and collective forms of fulfillment. They tackle topics such as labor cultures, social mobility, self-realization, as well as exhaustion and failure. The exhibition approaches success not as an individual achievement, but as the result of complex social, economic, and cultural entanglements.

In reference to the main theme of the 21st VIENNA ART WEEK 2025 – Learning Systems, learning here is understood as an active, inherent process through which norms and values — such as ideas of success and failure — are transmitted and perpetuated. The exhibition reflects on how these systems of knowledge and value emerge, who controls them, and how they can be critically examined and reimagined. Artists explore how alternative networks of knowledge and collective practices could enable new definitions of success — beyond exclusion, accumulation, and competition.

Curators’ Agenda itself is conceived as an intensive learning process: During their stay, the curators will gain in-depth insights into the contemporary Viennese art scene, engage in dialogue with local artists, visit institutions, studios, and galleries, and participate in lectures and workshops. They will be accompanied and supported by regular mentoring sessions led by Dr. Anamarija Batista, allowing them to deepen their curatorial and theoretical approaches and to further develop their own perspectives. Thus, the final exhibition is not only the result of artistic research but also a reflection of the curators’ collective learning process. It invites visitors to question dominant ideals of success, reflect on their own experiences and expectations, and collaboratively envision new models of fulfillment and social participation. In a time when success is often tied to overwork, precarity, and social isolation, the exhibition offers space for alternative narratives, solidaristic perspectives, and collective processes of learning.