The interim use project WEST has been revitalizing the former WU in Vienna’s ninth district since March 2022, offering space for temporary studio rooms, studios, workshops, seminars, events, exhibitions, symposia and talks. In November, WEST will open its doors during Vienna Art Week and offer insights into the creative work of its interim users as part of the Open Studio Days 2023. Parallel to this, the exhibition Stille Post. Die Antwort.

The exhibition Stille Post. Die Antwort. , a continuation of the exhibition Stille Post, which took place within the framework of Foto Wien 2023, unites the diverse artistic positions of WEST under a curatorial principle inspired by the children’s game Stille Post. In this game, messages are passed from one person to the next in whispers. At WEST, too, information is passed from artist to artist, but unlike whispered words, these are nonverbal messages in the form of artistic works.

The exhibition focuses on the transfer of artistic knowledge. How can the knowledge generated through the artistic practices of artists be received and transferred into one’s own subjective knowledge? What information stored in the artwork can be passed on to the next artist and made tangible, and what information is lost? Which material-sensual as well as content-related layers of the artwork are reflected and how do they change during transmission? Which reception structures and patterns emerge? Thus, the exhibition positions itself at the interface of artistic production and reception and also shows the limits of translatability.