Kunsthalle Vienna

The Kunsthalle Wien is the City of Vienna’s exhibition center for international contemporary art and dialogue, with sites in MuseumsQuartier and Karlsplatz.It displays many types of international contemporary art and creates new exhibition and communication platforms.With its rotating individual and themed shows, the Kunsthalle Wien is committed to showcasing art and reflecting on art and culture rather than having its own collection.

As a municipal institution, the Kunsthalle Wien has displayed national and international contemporary art since its inception in 1992.It is therefore a meeting place for the established as well as a space for discussions on current social challenges and future developments.

Adolf Krischanitz built it as a temporary building in the shape of a container for Karlsplatz and it opened there in the spring of 1992, sparking considerable public controversy even before it opened.The “huge dispute” ( Kurier, March 21, 1992 ) over the windowless, first simple blue and yellow container that molded the cityscape in a key site was labeled a “culture war” with “populist verbal attacks” ( Kurier, March 25, 1992 ). The Kronen Zeitung, for example, predicted that the new art gallery will “heat up the people’s soul.”Professional political solidarity actions with the architect were launched, but there was also criticism from peers such as Roland Rainer.A Viennese city council session on the matter was marked by “cabaret-ready verbal duels” (Kurier, March 28, 1992).

The Kunsthalle Wien relocated to the Museumsquartier in May 2001, a new building in the former “Oval Courtyard” comprising the ancient winter riding hall of the palace stables, located between the Leopold Museum and mumok.A brick addition that holds two exhibition rooms was added to or attached to the ancient edifice.The Museumsquartier site’s two rooms cover a total of 1,647 m2.

During the shift, the temporary container on Karlsplatz, which currently features a non-functioning pedestrian crossing, was destroyed.It was replaced with a glazed exhibition room, which operated as a project space for the Kunsthalle Wien until 2012 and has been a comparable exhibition and event space since 2013.