How are Vienna‘s museum directors “FACING TIME”? Part 1

Behind the Vienna Art Week stands the supporting association “Art Cluster Vienna”. We asked our members how they are facing time in the arts and their institutions. Here are their answers…

To challenging times, its critical art.

To art its freedom.

Every artistic expression is always a confrontation with time: the old-masterly portrait was painted to outlast time, the contemporary performance exists only in the fleeting moment; art for art’s sake strives for timelessness, the actionism of the day is already forgotten tomorrow; the photographic image lends duration to the moment, the drawing gesture inscribes its process of creation… Art reassures us of our existence. In space and time.

The exhibitions by Medardo Rosso and Liliane Lijn introduce the work of two artists who could not be more different. The personal portraits provide an insight into a life’s work and raise awareness of the past and present in equal measure. Mapping the 60s, on the other hand, deals with the history of the founding of mumok and the impact of the 1960s on the present. Facing Time, the motto of this year’s Art Week, can also be seen as a bracket for the current mumok exhibitions.

Time is a precious commodity, especially when you think about your own available lifetime. Reflecting on the concept of time beyond the personal, a paradigm shift in the context of time and AI is currently taking place in the history of mankind. The third version of the scientific AI Alpha Fold is radically transforming the various fields of research, for example in biology, medicine, chemistry and nanotechnology. Thanks to AI, mankind is gaining a huge amount of time through simulations – for example in cancer research, the search for malaria antidotes or finding a vaccine against viruses. AI can do in minutes what takes human scientists years in the laboratory. In this way, the use of AI is not a negative thing per se, on the contrary: the time gained through technical innovations can be invested in the reception of art and enjoyed in front of an auratic exhibit – ideally at the 20th edition of the Vienna Art Week events.

For the MAK, Facing Time means maintaining awareness of its outstanding applied and contemporary art collection’s broad sweep while directing its gaze to the future and exploring issues raised by the Anthropocene. It means presenting the ways in which art processes rapid societal and environmental changes while building bridges to history. Facing Time involves art and artists having the courage to face up to the truths of our age, to look them in the eye, and to give them form and expression.

Twenty years of the VIENNA ART WEEK thus represent an enduring forum for Facing Time. As an institution, the VIENNA ART WEEK facilitates exchange—facetiming—with artists. The MAK warmly congratulates the VIENNA ART WEEK on its jubilee!

The title of the upcoming VIENNA ART WEEK “Facing time” confronts us with a central theme of human existence. In our human lives, nothing is as constant as the permanent change and renewal brought about by the unstoppable progression of time.

Coming to terms with this constant change was, is and always will be a central task of art. Change and transformation do not stop at the STRABAG Kunstforum. In the 40th year of our existence, our collection has grown to over 8,000 works, which we present permanently at 70 of the Group’s office locations throughout Europe. After 20 years of exhibiting in the Art Lounge, the art space on the top floor of the STRABAG building in Vienna, this year we are also changing our premises and will be using a much larger exhibition space with a number of new features. I look forward to welcoming you here during the VIENNA ART WEEK or at one of our eight annual vernissages.

Art and philosophy are, following Hegel, their time captured in thought. They are involuntarily referred to their own historicity. Moreover, every experience is time-based, not only in the so-called time-based arts. Dealing with the structures of experience is the core business of art. With this in mind, Facing Time means nothing other than: Making art.

“Facing Time” addresses one of the foundations of human understanding of self and the world: the passage of time gives life structure and a feeling for the uniqueness of every moment. In the diverse collections of Dom Museum Wien, as well as in the current exhibition on the topic of friendship, art makes the past tangible and negotiates questions about beginnings and ends, the quality of time experienced together and the human fascination with the past and future.