Author: viennacultgram
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Abstracting nature – variations on a photographic theme
Something a little different today. Last Saturday, in glaring sunshine, I participated in a thematic photo walk along the Donaukanal near Kunsthaus Wien – Museum Hundertwasser. From time to time the museum offers photo walks based on themes in their current exhibitions. “Some Plant Volatiles” by Hamburg-based photographer Jochen Lempert provided the foundation for Saturday´s…
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I (never) promised you a rose garden
But here it is… Spring sprang fast this year. Before we knew it, the lilac bloom came and went. But there is compensation: an explosion of colorful roses all around Vienna. This merry month of May, which at times feels like summer, seemingly everywhere your eye roams it is met by exuberant red, pink, white…
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Vienna in gold – A Jane´s walk
Who´s Jane? I´ve been asked this. So here is a bit of background on the Jane´s Walk Vienna 2018 festival. These walks are named for Jane Jacobs, who was an American-Canadian journalist, writer, and activist who had great influence on American urban studies, sociology, and how people thought about urban development in the 1950s and…
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Our city! – The city without?
73 years. A lifetime. Just one lifetime. That is how long (or short) ago the liberation of the Austrian concentration camp at Mauthausen took place, on 6 May 1945 – one of several such death camps for people of Jewish heritage and other groups whom the terror regime of the National Socialists considered undesirables. So…
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Observing collectors of the exotic
Missionaries – mercenaries – ethnographers – tourists… One might say that collecting things is a basic human urge. Some people collect clocks, antique books, vintage clothing, rubber ducks, bottle tops, even umbrella sleeves (!) – you name it, somebody will surely be collecting it. (I personally admit to an out-of-control collection of (artificial) birds…
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Grow your own: gardening fun in the city
The garden season is definitely upon us in Vienna. Not only is everything blooming at the same time, we are experiencing crazy summer temperatures in April, and the fresh meadows are already full of wildflowers. I love being in green spaces, whether it is a garden, a park, or the woods. Growing at least some…
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Art in the aftermath of war – a special angle on two current exhibitions at the Belvedere
Last Friday I finally had the chance to attend an expert tour at the Belvedere again. The Belvedere has an outstanding programme of guided tours by curators and historians, and I try to go as often as I can (which, given my schedule lately, is less often than I would like). The excellent art history…
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Nature is good for you – and Vienna has plenty of it
After the looong winter we had this year, it seems that in Vienna spring was just bursting at the seams. Right now, just about everything seems to be blooming all at once: forsythias, apple, cherry and pear trees, tulips, the lowly but lovely daisies and dandelions, etc., etc. A veritable #ParadisusVindobonensis! Even the lilac, which…
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Monstrous machines and biting dogs – Keith Haring´s Alphabet at the Albertina
Keith Haring is perhaps best known for his funky cartoons of happy babies with halos and line drawings of Mickey Mouse look-alikes. At first glance his use of garish colours and popping black silhouettes gives the impression of a happy cartoon world. What you can buy on buttons and T-shirts are often his happier motifs. …
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Going wild at the Leopold Museum
Wow! The Heidi Horten Collection exhibition at the Leopold Museum is aptly named. It really is superb. Last week @igersaustria.at organized a special photo tour of the exhibit. What an impressive private collection! One really has to be grateful to Heidi Goëss-Horten for making such masterpieces available for public viewing for the first time.…
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