Author: viennacultgram
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Making Truth
Can you believe it’s already the 1st of December and this year is nearly done? But, scary as that is, that’s not what I want to talk about. Rather, this is a flashback to just a couple of weeks ago when I got to meet some Viennese artists. For me it´s always a thrill to…
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Tricky imperial mysteries at the KHM
I like both a good mystery and art. So I was thrilled to be invited to join a new “mystery hunt” game at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna: The Emperor´s magic circle (“Der magische Kreis des Kaisers“) – the title alone conjured up images of conspiracies and bewitching secrets in my brain. What would it take,…
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Return of the dead to Weltmuseum Wien
Yes, they are back this weekend, the dead and not so dead, celebrating Día de los Muertos with a whole series of events at Weltmuseum Wien. After a year´s absence, fortunately the Weltmuseum opened its doors again for the festivities and exhibitions surrounding this traditional Mexican holiday. Why, you might ask, would a Mexican holiday…
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A noisy orchestra of colours: Bosch & Banisadr
Ali Banisadr speaks of the fantastic colourful figures that populate his canvases as if they were independent beings, born into his creative world out of a chaotic cacophony of sound and colour that slowly comes together as a symphony. It is not often that I get to meet an important contemporary artist, and I feel…
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Individual nature – Kiki Smith
Before it´s too late (just one more week), I absolutely had to go see the exhibition of Kiki Smith´s large size canvases and other works at the Lower Belvedere museum. The Belvedere is showing about sixty works of this American artist´s multi-facetted oevre in the exhibition Processions , including sculptures, large tapestries, and objects and…
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A hymn to the earth in Baden
For the second year now, the city of Baden near Vienna is hosting the photo festival La Gacilly-Baden, and all over downtown you can feast your eyes on outstanding photo-art. Huge photographs by acclaimed photographers from around the world grace building walls, line walking paths and frame baroque palaces. If the charms of Baden alone…
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Istanbul´s streets through the eyes of Ara Güler
If, like me, you are into classic street photography, the exhibition “Istanbul´s Eye” (das Auge Istanbuls) at the Leica Store near the Vienna opera is for you. Until 24 August you can visit their upstairs gallery and look at a selection of photographs by the famous Armenian-Turkish photographer Ara Güler. Admittedly I had not heard…
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A long time tramming
Vienna has one of the best public transport systems in the world. I live in one of the outer districts, and yet I can make it into downtown in under half an hour, including walking time. Yesterday I got to find out more about the long history of trams and public buses in Vienna during…
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Fridays for Future
Time for a pro-nature conservation rant (after all, my VienNature Culturegram has the word “nature” in it, and I´ve been neglecting that part a bit). “Species have always gone extinct”. “The earth´s climate has changed many times before”. This and other unscientific global warming and climate change myths are commonly spouted by the uninformed and…
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Street art goes museum
The Wien Museum´s central location on Karlsplatz has now been emptied out in preparation or extensive renovation and reconstruction works that will start this fall. Meanwhile though, the museum curators Karina Karadensky and Christine Koblitz had the excellent idea to make the walls of the museum available for street artists, who have painted all rooms…