Kunsthalle Wien

Kunsthalle Wien is dedicated to art and its relations to social change. It produces exhibitions, researches art practices, and supports local and international artists. It grounds its knowledge of international contemporary art in and for Vienna, and advocates for the usefulness of artistic thinking in the wider public sphere.

Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić und Sabina Sabolović, Kunsthalle Wien’s directors, have based their program on twenty years of collective work in Zagreb and internationally. That work has been particularly interested in artistic practices located outside the centers of power, as well as the links to various activist endeavors. WHW therefore puts Vienna in all its diversity at the center of the program, setting up exchanges with geographies, histories and knowledges that have less visibility and recognition than activities in the main western capitals.

Since it opened in 1992 – originally as a makeshift structure shaped like a container, today with locations at the Museumsquartier and Karlsplatz – Kunsthalle Wien, as an urban institution, presents national and international contemporary art. In this respect, it is both a location for established art and negotiation site for current societal issues as well as future developments.

In the beginning, Kunsthalle Wien was a makeshift structure. Conceptualized as a temporary edifice in the shape of a container by Adolf Krischanitz, Kunsthalle Wien opened its doors at Karlsplatz in 1992. The initially rather controversial yellow container structure not only shaped the Viennese cityscape, but also changed the local art and exhibition scene.

In May 2001, Kunsthalle Wien eventually moved into its new headquarters, designed by the architect duo Ortner & Ortner, at the Museumsquartier. For this headquarters the Winterreithalle (winter riding arena) of the Hofstallungen (Imperial Mews) was extended by a functional annex which combines the historic building with contemporary architecture. Two halls with different interior profiles provide space for exhibitions of contemporary art.

In 2001, the yellow container at Karlsplatz was reduced to a glass pavilion. This glass cube, which was also designed by Adolf Krischanitz, is now the second location of Kunsthalle Wien and presents a wide-ranging program of exhibitions and events.