Exhibition: Hot Questions – Cold Storage, Permanent Collection of the Architekturzentrum Wien. Vienna, opening 1 December 2021
In Autumn 2021 the new Permanent Collection of the Architekturzentrum Wien opens, providing insights into the most significant and extensive collection of Austrian architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries. The focus is on the investigation of key objects, both high-profile and lesser-known items. Seven hot questions bring cold storage to life.
The Architekturzentrum Wien is the only museum in Austria devoted exclusively to architecture. The new Permanent Collection of the Az W replaces the existing ‘a_show’, which opened back in 2004. While the ‘a_show’ shows the whole story of architecture in Austria brilliantly in a chronological order the display is largely based on reproductions. As the Az W Collection has expanded over the last 17 years and consists of over 85 architects’ estates as well as an extensive collections of individual projects, a large number of objects are being shown for the first time in the new Permanent Collection ‘Hot Questions — Cold Storage’. Selected models, drawings, furniture, fabrics, documents and films develop new threads in seven thematic episodes. Each episode is preceded by one of today’s burning issues, from the impact of globalisation on our towns and villages, or the question of how we want to live, to the contribution that architecture can make to our survival on this planet. At the same time, ‘Cold Storage’ provides visitors with a view behind the scenes, in all the activities involved working in a collection.
The nation’s building activity with all of its cultural, social, economic and constructive ramifications is made strikingly visible. The contents covered range from the special significance of Red Vienna to architectural pedagogical experiments in the wake of the 1968 movement, or architectural revolts in Vorarlberg to historical and current examples of environmental rethinking. The exhibition also engages with the ideological instrumentalisation of architecture and spatial planning and the active collaboration of architects in authoritarian systems, as well as their resistance. At the same time, the exhibition challenges deficits in the canon of Austrian architectural history, for instance from a perspective of gender equality. New players are featured, light is shed on previously little known sources and the key focus is on multiple perspectives instead of on a national historical narrative. This diversity is also reflected in the exhibition design, which is by Michael Hieslmair and Michael Zinganel (tracing spaces). The sheer variety of the exponents and their display makes a visit to the exhibition a sensual and atmospheric experience.
The exhibition opening will take place on 1 December 2021 at 19:00 local time.
More information can be found here.