First Climate Biennale: 100-day program around art & ecology

 Save-the-date: On April 5, 2024, the first Climate Biennale Vienna will start with the KunstHausWien as the Biennale headquarters and the festival area at the Nordwestbahnhof site as an urban utopia.

 The urgency of the climate crisis and the associated need for a radical cultural change in thinking and action are the motivation for the City of Vienna to establish a new festival: The first Vienna Climate Biennale starts on April 5 and runs until July 14, 2024. For one hundred days, a cross-disciplinary, interactive and low-threshold program will be offered across the city with the aim of finding common answers to the climate crisis and launching new ideas for a future worth living. The KunstHausWien, a museum of Wien Holding, is the Biennale headquarters.

Diverse festival program around art and ecology

How a sustainable world can be created, what joint models can be developed for this and how abstract global issues can be made tangible are some of the questions posed by the Biennale directors Sithara Pathirana and Claudius Schulze. They are preparing a diverse festival program around art and ecology, with which they invite participation in the dialogue about future social developments. The Vienna Climate Biennale is a broad-based urban project: in a joint initiative of the Climate, Culture, Science and Economy departments, the City of Vienna is expressing the relevance of the topic for all areas of life.

Making massive changes visible

Peter Hanke, City Councillor for Finance, Economy, Labor, International Affairs and Wiener Stadtwerke: "The Department of Economy and Labor supports the Vienna Climate Biennale out of the deepest conviction that climate change will also massively change our world of work, forms of trade and sustainable production. This is precisely the strength of the new initiative: highlighting these interfaces and making them comprehensible."

Urgent issues of our time

Veronica Kaup-Hasler, City Councillor for Culture and Science: "Art and culture have the potential and the enlightening power to make the urgent questions and problems of our time - above all the pressing climate crisis - comprehensible to others, sensual and beyond traditional scientific formats. I am delighted that with the Climate Biennale, the City of Vienna has created an interdisciplinary festival format that has an impact on society through the vehicle of art, enters into communication and can thus become a multiplier of inspiring ideas."

Jointly absorbing the consequences

Jürgen Czernohorszky, City Councillor for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Human Resources: "I see the climate crisis as the greatest political task of our time. We face the challenge of dealing with its consequences and working towards a world that remains liveable despite all the changes. We must face this situation together and across all departments and political camps."

The structure of the Biennale

The Vienna Climate Biennale consists of three parts:

KunstHausVienna

The KunstHausWien is the starting point, exhibition venue and Biennale headquarters. During the Vienna Climate Biennale, the newly renovated museum will not only serve as a meeting point for information and exchange, but also as a place for artistic debate: the group exhibition Into the Woods, curated by Sophie Haslinger, is dedicated to the forest ecosystem. In addition, KunstHausWien will host the first Vienna Climate Summit, which will use interactive formats to break new ground in knowledge transfer.

Northwest station site

The festival area will be set up on the former north-west railway station site. Large thematic exhibitions will be shown there and experimental areas for urban coexistence will be created: The focus will be on topics such as environmentally friendly architecture, renewable energy sources, sustainable mobility, green infrastructure and conscious consumption. The highlight is the group exhibition Songs for the Changing Seasons, curated by Lucia Pietroiusti (Serpentine Gallery) and Filipa Ramos (independent curator).

Immediate Matters

With its urban program, the Climate Biennale is conquering the entire urban space: In the exhibition project Immediate Matters artists present local strategies in various project spaces in Vienna, which are determined via a call. Together with partner institutions, a biennial program will be implemented at several venues, including the Foto Arsenal Wien, the Weltmuseum Wien, the MAK - Museum of Applied Arts and the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung, which will participate with their own exhibitions. Other Biennale partners include the Academy of Fine Arts, the Architekturzentrum Wien, Belvedere 21, Brunnenpassage, Science Pool, the Haus der Geschichte Österreich, the Children's Office of the University of Vienna, Kunsthalle Wien, MQ Wien, Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus and Admiral Kino, Transformer (a project by TU Wien), the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Wiener Festwochen, the Volkskundemuseum Wien and vienna design week. A particular focus is on participative mediation formats with, among others, Volkshilfe Wien and on close cooperation with partner organizations from science and education.

Photo: RasaSmite_RaitisSmits_AtmosphericForest_PurvitisPrize (c) KristineMadjare

Communicating a climate-conscious future

With their programs, all cooperation partners(Vienna Climate Biennale) contribute significantly to communicating the common concerns for a modern climate future to a broad public and are a good example of the joint approach of public and private institutions.

Claudius Schulze and Sithara Pathirana, directors of the Vienna Climate Biennale: "In a world where economic growth is often seen as the ultimate goal, the climate crisis is challenging this paradigm. Our vision for the Climate Biennale is to use the means of art and the power of transdisciplinary networking to work out systemic, holistic approaches to bring ecological balance into harmony with the economy and prosperity. Climate change is a reality; now it's about preserving a future worth living - for everyone."

Link:

Official website of the Vienna Climate Biennale

Titelfoto©️OliverRessler_The path is never the same