Kunsthalle Wien

About

Kunsthalle Wien is the city of Vienna's institution for international contemporary art and discourse with two locations, in the Museumsquartier and at Karlsplatz. Kunsthalle Wien does not have a collection of its own, but instead dedicates its changing solo and thematic exhibitions to art and its relations to social change. It produces exhibitions, researches art practices, and supports local and international artists. It seeks to ground its knowledge of international contemporary art in and for Vienna, and advocates for the usefulness of artistic thinking in the wider public sphere.

Since it opened in 1992 – originally shaped like a container – 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 situated at Karlsplatz. Conceptualized as a temporary edifice in the shape of a container by Adolf Krischanitz. The initially rather controversial yellow container structure eventually changed the local art and exhibition scene.

In May 2001, Kunsthalle Wien 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. The entrance area was remodelled and the building extensively renovated in 2013, rendering the original spatial concept visible again. In 2001, the yellow container at Karlsplatz was replaced by a glass pavilion.

- 2019–2024: WHW (What, How and for Whom): Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović

Kunsthalle Wien organizes several thematic group exhibitions, solo shows, festivals, conferences, and displays art in the public space each year at both venues. Among them:

- Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991 (February – May 2025)

- Diego Marcon. La Gola (October 2024 – February 2025)

- Aleksandra Domanović (September 2024 – January 2024)

- Rene Matić / Oscar Murillo. JAZZ. (March – July 2024)

- Darker, Lighter, Puffy, Flat (November 2023 – May 2024)

- No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection (April 2023 – January 2024)

- Laure Prouvost. Ohmmm age Oma je ohomma mama (May – October 2023)

- Rajkamal Kahlon. Which Side Are You On? (December 2022 – April 2023)

- In the meantime, midday comes around (November 2022 – May 2023)

- Sanja Iveković. Works of Heart (1974–2022) (October 2022 – March 2023)

- Katrina Daschner. BURN & GLOOM! GLOW & MOON! Thousand Years of Troubled Genders (June – October 2022)

- Space for Kids. The Art-Nature Laboratory or The Mushrooming Cabinet of Wonders (June – October 2022)

- Defiant Muses. Delphine Seyrig and the Feminist Video Collectives of 1970s and 1980s France (April – September 2022)

- Handspells. Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2021 (February – May 2022)