Four Microfestivals at the Vienna Otto Wagner Area

While the hot renovation phase is about to begin with the crane assembly at the Volkskundemuseum Wien in Laudongasse in Josefstadt, they have made themselves very comfortable in the temporary quarters on Baumgartner Höhe. With a variety of activities, they want to attract the audience here.

"With the 48 A, you can get here super fast," the museum director advertises the bus connection to the decentralized location on this Tuesday morning. In a cozy meeting room, which also has a ping-pong table, a press conference has been called to prove that a closed museum and an active museum are not a contradiction. Last year, when the main building, which had already been largely cleared out, not only hosted the Wiener Festwochen's festival headquarters, 400 events were offered, this year it will be only around 40, explains program director Herbert Justnik. But impressively, they continue the programmatic path taken a few years ago: Out of the ivory tower, into total networking. The museum as a space for discourse and possibilities.

Part of the "Otto Wagner Areal" in Vienna until at least the end of 2026

Therefore, in the coming months, they are not only preparing the future "Court of Cultures" in Laudongasse intensively with residencies of four fellows from the fields of ceramics, glass art, art and culinary arts, as well as carpet weaving and community dialogues (project manager Fabian Ritzi: "This will be a 'hands-on approach to the museum"), but also connecting with institutions that are already on site or will come here. The listed Art Nouveau area of the psychiatric hospital with the world-famous Otto Wagner Church is to be developed by the city in the coming years under the title "Otto Wagner Areal" into a "home for culture, education, science, commemoration, experience, and much more" (project description). An atelier house is to be built here, the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW) will also move here, as will the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna (MUK), which is to occupy 15 of the 35 pavilions from 2030/31.

"The area is facing an exciting time," Beitl is convinced. At least until the end of 2026, the Volkskundemuseum will be here. "Maybe we can stay here longer with one foot," he shows sympathy for a long-term perspective on the site. There is already a date for the reopening of the museum, where after the renovation hardly a stone will remain unturned in the spatial structure - for example, the offices will be moved downstairs, foyers and gastronomy will be expanded, and the enlarged mediation department will be given a central position -: 26.6.2026. "Exactly 106 years after the opening of the museum in Laudongasse, we want to return," Beitl announces and assures that everything is currently on schedule regarding time and budget plans. 25 million euros for the renovation come from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. "Without it, there would be no renovation." In addition, 2.5 million euros come from the federal government. These are secured, says Beitl, who is much more concerned about the future operating budget of the enlarged museum with its then 45 employees in view of the federal government's savings plans.

Goal: Doubling the Number of Visitors

The new main exhibition is not scheduled to open until 2027, with which they also want to double the annual number of visitors to 100,000. "That is an ambitious goal. Actually, we want free admission so that our ideas can be realized. With the Vienna Museum, we have a good role model," says Beitl and estimates the calculated annual budget from 2028 at 6 million euros with a 20 percent self-financing rate. "Use Your Museum," is the title of the new space utilization plans, which the museum director proudly presents. The motto is: "maximally public / minimally internal."

Currently, Pavilion 1 on the Baumgartner Höhe site is shared with the exhibition "The Sick House. How Architecture Helps Heal," open until September 7, with the "Museum of Migration" (MUSMIG) and from May 1 with the Mostothek, an apple cider tavern with cultural operations open until September. In the foyer, a "One Object Show," which presents a file discovery about a Volkskundemuseum employee who became a guard at the Mauthausen concentration camp, reminds us that they critically engage with their own history. In Josefstadt, the air raid shelter in Schönbornpark was thematized, in the temporary quarters, the NS past is also oppressively present with the memorial just a few steps away, which commemorates the euthanasia crimes of the clinic at Spiegelgrund.

The program focus for 2025 is titled "Through the Dark. About Life in Authoritarian Times" and includes, in addition to a series of talks at the Institute for European Ethnology in Hanuschgasse, four micro-festivals at the Otto Wagner Areal, where workshops, lectures, performances, clubs, and installations will address the current political and social situation. Dates are May 10 and 24, July 5, and September 13. Expected are, among others, theater maker Yosi Wanunu, the "Queen of Power," as well as the "Mystery Plays Ringelsdorf," a theater spectacle by Katharina Kummer, with professionals and amateurs, horse and chicken. Motto: "Abandon all hope!"

(APA/Red)

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