TRANSMEDIALE 1900

Each of the works on show interprets and transforms a specific element from the vicinity of the groundbreaking developments in Vienna around 1900 in an individual way. Various media, techniques, and concepts are used to cast contemporary perspectives on the historical contexts. Themes such as transformation, memory, technological change, gender roles, and fundamental changes in society are reflected through diverse means of expression.

A special guiding system in the form of transparent, lime-green monograms, developed by Maximilian Prag in reference to typography designs of the era around 1900, individually highlights each artistic work.

Interventions in the MAK Permanent Collection Vienna 1900

Cristian Anutoius’s work extrusion refers to Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s 1925 bedsitter design for Caroline Neubacher. The room design, dominated by wood, serves as a starting point. Anutoiu adds an object to the interior design that enlivens the room and gives it a certain mystical touch.

Julius Anatol Biswurm’s sound work Decaying Resonance directly responds to a cabinet of drawers by Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill from 1908. The composition follows the stepped structure of the piece of furniture, employing the variation of a motif. Natural soundscapes contrast with the craftsmanship and the abstract nature of the furniture design.

Francesca Centonze presents a soft, almost six-meter-long spatial object that is wrapped in blue velvet and is shaped like a seating sculpture: Uvula. The unconventional design is inspired by the uvula. As a muscle it marks a transition in the body—both physically as well as linguistically. Similarly, the organic element acts as a kind of threshold between applied (visitors are allowed to sit on it) and fine arts.

Referencing the central role of ceramic design for the Wiener Werkstätte, CERAMIC GOONZ designed a personalized tea service made of clay in step by step. The artist employed a straightforward “Würschteltechnik” (sausage technique). The focus of the work lies on the exploration of the creative processes that include inner satisfaction and intuitive design elements.

Patrícia Chamrazová’s work Vienna 2023 reflects the way technologies like augmented reality change our world. The artist references selected objects from the Collection and transforms them through animated 3-D scans. The work plays with the aesthetics of the early 20th century and combines it with present-day technology.

Josepha Edbauer’s work trauriger Kunststoffstuhl [Sad Plastic Chair] replaces an existing exhibit with the globally present plastic Monobloc chair. The artist lets the chair collapse, thus commenting on the fact that in the museum the history of Viennese Modernism ends with Austria’s annexation to Nazi Germany, leaving the involvement of some protagonists with the Nazis unmentioned.

Sarah Glück dedicated her work Das sehende Auge schaut nicht weg [The Seeing Eye Does Not Look Away] to the Jewish women artists of the Wiener Werkstätte, who—like Vally Wieselthier—preferred to work with ceramics. Some of them, including Kitty Rix and Grete Neuwalder, became victims of the Nazi regime, were forced to flee or were deported and murdered. As monuments, the artist created small eye tiles that are distributed throughout the entire exhibition. They form a manifold system of remembrance: eyes that look, experience, look back, and bear eternal witness.

Fiona Hauser’s contribution Dear Museum of Applied Arts,… addresses the part of Adolf Loos’s biography characterized by suppression and oblivion: child abuse; to her, the Permanent Collection conceived in 2013 lacks a respective comment, and she adds the information by exhibiting Loos’s case file on a bookrest.

In his work blurred inbetween, Elias Jocher starts with the ornamentation of Art Nouveau and transforms it digitally into contemporary object-beings. Similar to Art Nouveau, which was influenced by reproductive and evolutionary processes, the digital reality also undergoes continuous renewal and development.

Sjeng Kessels alters a study by Adolf Loos in a very subtle way. The artist responds to a series of reproductions in the wood paneling by changing them with paint and giving them an artistic touch. Thus, the reproductions become independent artworks that simultaneously serve as a commentary on the overall setting.

In Have you heard of…, the artists Alice Klarwein, Camilla Ruh, and Marlene Stahl cover an existing showcase with a textile throw, thus partially concealing the exhibits. The work arises against the backdrop of the history of women artists that was marked by invisibility and the dominance of patriarchal social structures.

Simon Kubik’s intervention Form folgt Kosteneffizienz [Form Follows Cost Efficiency] consists of an arrangement of fast food packaging made of stainless steel. It alludes to the traditional tea or coffee service as a symbol of bourgeois etiquette and the epitome of the sophisticated design of the Wiener Werkstätte while at the same time representing the contemporary concept of freedom and individuality.
In her work shape of the shape, Vanessa Mazanik reflects on the influence of digitalization and the associated changes with regard to concepts like patterns and grids, which were essential for design in Vienna around 1900. The transparent material glass here serves as a medium representing change, while the glass painting references the craft tradition.

Brooklyn J. Pakathi’s work in search of… emerged from an analysis of historical documents from the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte. Pakathi aims at questioning common narratives, thus lending visibility to the voices of women, queer persons, and “global majority.”
Maximilian Prag’s artistic contribution fuck, marry, kill: art craft design manifests itself in an exhibition poster he designed. The artist draws on layouts, typographies, and subjects from Koloman Moser, Art Nouveau, and the Wiener Werkstätte, seeking connections to current graphic ways of expression.

Maximilian Prag’s artistic contribution fuck, marry, kill: art craft design manifests itself in an exhibition poster he designed. The artist draws on layouts, typographies, and subjects from Koloman Moser, Art Nouveau, and the Wiener Werkstätte, seeking connections to current graphic ways of expression.

Marian Stein’s and Ludwig Rieger’s Objekt No.371.stl revisits Josef Hoffmann’s Seven-Ball Chair. The object is made of fragments of the original chair that were produced with different materials and computer-aided production techniques. Here, the emphasis on the unity of design process and material, a core aspect of the Wiener Werkstätte, often conflicts with the immateriality of digital production techniques.

The video and sound work tavola rasa by Iris Writze and Hsin-Yu Chou interacts with a tea table by Edward William Godwin (ca. 1870). A video projection on the tabletop creates an imaginary scenario inspired by the changes in dance around 1900. In the background, sounds from Vienna and Taipei (the artists’ residences) question the soundscape that seems familiar to us.

Opening Hours
Tue 10 am–9 pm, Wed to Sun 10 am–6 pm

Concept
Lilli Hollein, Jakob Lena Knebl

Guest Curators
Eva Chytilek, Doris Krüger, Martina Menegon

Curator
Anne-Katrin Rossberg

Supporting Program
Details at MAK.at