mumok is closing for renovation and offering an alternative program

2023-12-13 12:22:40

After a “year overshadowed by crises” and “challenges that hit us as a cultural institution,” mumok General Director Karola Kraus drew a positive balance of activities for 2023. Above all, she was pleased regarding the increased number of visitors and that the show “The Animal in You” was listed among the ten most important of the year by “Artforum international”. The house will be closed for renovation in January, and they are confident that the project will stick to time and budget.

From January 8th to June 6th, the ventilation and sanitary systems as well as floors and existing walls will be completely overhauled. The costs are estimated at around six million euros. In the future, the renovations will enable, among other things, a significant reduction in the energy consumption of the Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig (mumok) as well as savings of up to 80 tons of drinking water per year, emphasized Kraus at a press conference on Wednesday. At the same time, she renewed her commitment to hand over management of the house “following 15 successful years” and not to apply once more for the current new tender. Her “declared goal” is to “continue to increase the number of visitors” by the end of her term in office. When asked, they did not want to give specific figures; the ministry would traditionally present them in February.

A new website will go online on January 8th, allowing virtual tours of the mumok collection. With mumok visits, an “extensive program” is intended to offer an alternative to visiting a museum. “We invite you to take guided tours of places that are closely connected to the mumok,” says Kraus. Among other things, you visit artists in their studios and present their works in public spaces – such as an 80 meter long installation by Christian Kosmas Mayer in Meidlinger Bahnhof. Creative workshops are offered in cooperation with the Göttlicher Heiland Hospital and art education at Viennese schools, as well as construction site tours.

The renovated museum will reopen to the public as planned on June 6th with the exhibition “Avant-Garde and Liberation”. The show with around 25 artists from South Asia, Africa, Europe and Europe is intended to shed light on the importance of global modernity for contemporary art, as curator Matthias Michalka emphasized. The Korean Jongsuk Yoon was invited to design a new wall design for the museum foyer. The exhibition “Mapping the 60s” starts on July 5th. “We are of the opinion that hardly any other decade provides so many approaches for social change,” says Michalka. On October 19th, mumok is dedicating a retrospective to the “artist, craftsman, art theorist, proto-installation artist and master of high-profile productions”, Medaro Rosso.

In the summer, from July 5th to August 11th, a jointly curated performance festival entitled “nowher / now here” will take place at mumok in cooperation with ImPulsTanz. This leads to Nikima Jagudayev’s performative exhibition “Basically”.

(S E R V I C E – www.mumok.at)

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