2014–2021: Independent Curatorial Projects (Selection)
LIFTING THE CURTAIN
9/4/2015—5/5/2015
LIFTING THE CURTAIN. Central European Architectural NetworksOn the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Austrian Society for Architecture (ÖGFA)
This exhibition is a collaboration between six art and architecture institutions from Poland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, and Austria. It was first presented to great acclaim in 2014 as a collateral event of the Architecture Biennale in Venice. Conceived as a traveling exhibition, its first stop after Venice in 2015 is the Austrian Society for Architecture (ÖGFA), hosted at the Angewandte Innovation Lab (AIL) of the University of Applied Arts, located at Franz-Josefs-Kai 3.
The exhibition is structured into six chapters — Experiments, Transfers, Research, Encounters, Collectives, and Publics — and presents case studies of cross-border collaboration from the end of World War I to the fall of the Iron Curtain. These case studies span Austria, Hungary, Poland, the former Czechoslovakia (today the Czech and Slovak Republics), Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia (the successor states of Yugoslavia), with references and continuities into the present day.Rather than focusing on individual architects or architectural masterpieces, the exhibition traces international networks of people, ideas, institutions, and technologies.
A key theme is the permeability of the "Iron Curtain" made possible through knowledge transfer. In the socialist countries, the export of technology by large state-run postwar architectural offices played a central role.In Austria, examples include the personal network of Adolf Loos, the collaborations between Josef Frank and his students at the School of Arts and Crafts, the prefabricated housing estate on Veitingergasse developed by Carl Auböck and Roland Rainer with American support, and the contacts of Working Group 4 and the Austrian Society for Architecture with Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union during the 1960s. A joint case study from all participating countries focuses on their pavilions at the 1958 World Expo in Brussels — Austria presented a pavilion designed by Karl Schwanzer, now home to Vienna's 21er Haus (Museum of Contemporary Art).
In its anniversary year, the ÖGFA is continuing its decades-long engagement with Austrian modernism in the European context. From the beginning, it has been committed to rediscovering architects who were forced into exile. The ÖGFA’s first public event in 1965 was an exhibition dedicated to Josef Frank. During the Cold War, the ÖGFA organized excursions to Eastern Bloc countries, beyond party-political agendas, and maintained a rich exchange with professionals from those regions. In doing so, it contributed to overcoming political and cultural boundaries.In this spirit, the exhibition aims both to reconsider the architectural history of Central Europe and to reinvigorate today’s transnational networks.
The project was initiated by the architectural network TRACE, organized by the Polish Modern Art Foundation (PMAF), and curated by: Sarmen Beglarian (Polish Modern Art Foundation, Warsaw), Piotr Bujas (TRACE), Igor Kovačević (CCEA, Prague), Iris Meder (ÖGFA, Vienna), Maroje Mrduljaš (Platforma 9,81, Zagreb/Split), Samu Szemerey (KÉK, Budapest).
Supported by:
FRANZ JOSEFS KAI 3, the AIL (Angewandte Innovation Lab) of the University of Applied Arts,
the Federal Chancellery of Austria / Arts Section, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, and the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna, Science and Research Promotion.
Exhibition Architecture:
Małgorzata Kuciewicz, Monika Konrad, Simone de Iacobis
Exhibition Graphic Design:
Jakub Jezierski
Vienna Organization:
Iris Meder, Gabriele Ruff
A catalogue in German with English summaries was published by müry salzmann.
Editors:
Iris Meder, Gabriele Ruff, Suzanne Kříženecký, Azra Charbonnier, together with the curating organizations.
Graphic Design:
Jakub Jezierski
This exhibition is a collaboration between six art and architecture institutions from Poland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, and Austria. It was first presented to great acclaim in 2014 as a collateral event of the Architecture Biennale in Venice. Conceived as a traveling exhibition, its first stop after Venice in 2015 is the Austrian Society for Architecture (ÖGFA), hosted at the Angewandte Innovation Lab (AIL) of the University of Applied Arts, located at Franz-Josefs-Kai 3.
The exhibition is structured into six chapters — Experiments, Transfers, Research, Encounters, Collectives, and Publics — and presents case studies of cross-border collaboration from the end of World War I to the fall of the Iron Curtain. These case studies span Austria, Hungary, Poland, the former Czechoslovakia (today the Czech and Slovak Republics), Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia (the successor states of Yugoslavia), with references and continuities into the present day.Rather than focusing on individual architects or architectural masterpieces, the exhibition traces international networks of people, ideas, institutions, and technologies.
A key theme is the permeability of the "Iron Curtain" made possible through knowledge transfer. In the socialist countries, the export of technology by large state-run postwar architectural offices played a central role.In Austria, examples include the personal network of Adolf Loos, the collaborations between Josef Frank and his students at the School of Arts and Crafts, the prefabricated housing estate on Veitingergasse developed by Carl Auböck and Roland Rainer with American support, and the contacts of Working Group 4 and the Austrian Society for Architecture with Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union during the 1960s. A joint case study from all participating countries focuses on their pavilions at the 1958 World Expo in Brussels — Austria presented a pavilion designed by Karl Schwanzer, now home to Vienna's 21er Haus (Museum of Contemporary Art).
In its anniversary year, the ÖGFA is continuing its decades-long engagement with Austrian modernism in the European context. From the beginning, it has been committed to rediscovering architects who were forced into exile. The ÖGFA’s first public event in 1965 was an exhibition dedicated to Josef Frank. During the Cold War, the ÖGFA organized excursions to Eastern Bloc countries, beyond party-political agendas, and maintained a rich exchange with professionals from those regions. In doing so, it contributed to overcoming political and cultural boundaries.In this spirit, the exhibition aims both to reconsider the architectural history of Central Europe and to reinvigorate today’s transnational networks.
The project was initiated by the architectural network TRACE, organized by the Polish Modern Art Foundation (PMAF), and curated by: Sarmen Beglarian (Polish Modern Art Foundation, Warsaw), Piotr Bujas (TRACE), Igor Kovačević (CCEA, Prague), Iris Meder (ÖGFA, Vienna), Maroje Mrduljaš (Platforma 9,81, Zagreb/Split), Samu Szemerey (KÉK, Budapest).
Supported by:
FRANZ JOSEFS KAI 3, the AIL (Angewandte Innovation Lab) of the University of Applied Arts,
the Federal Chancellery of Austria / Arts Section, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, and the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna, Science and Research Promotion.
Exhibition Architecture:
Małgorzata Kuciewicz, Monika Konrad, Simone de Iacobis
Exhibition Graphic Design:
Jakub Jezierski
Vienna Organization:
Iris Meder, Gabriele Ruff
A catalogue in German with English summaries was published by müry salzmann.
Editors:
Iris Meder, Gabriele Ruff, Suzanne Kříženecký, Azra Charbonnier, together with the curating organizations.
Graphic Design:
Jakub Jezierski