International curators with exhibitions in Vienna’s leading contemporary art galleries

With the project curated by_vienna, departure, the creative unit of Vienna’s Business Agency, supports the systematic collaboration of selected Viennese galleries with international curators. As a multicultural metropolis in the heart of Europe, Vienna has a vibrant contemporary art scene, thanks to the galleries located in this city. With their cutting-edge programs and regular participation in international art fairs, these galleries have not only contributed to an international reputation, but also to the image of Vienna as focal point of the contemporary art scene.

The objective of curated by_vienna is to strengthen the international networks of galleries, curators, and art institutions. The new contacts made over the course of this project are intended to contribute, beyond the actual project scope, to relations between various individuals involved in the art scene and also to the fostering of new ideas and endeavors in the future.

After its successful start in 2009, curated by_vienna is now taking place for the sixth time. Within the framework of this project, 20 Viennese galleries are presenting exhibitions conceptualized by international curators.

Reflections on the intersections between art and architecture provide the impetus for this year’s edition of curated by_vienna. Accordingly, the renowned architectural historian and theorist Beatriz Colomina has written an essay titled The Century of the Bed for which this year’s event has been named. This theme provides a theoretical basis for the participating galleries, and for the curators invited by the galleries respectively.
Citing a 2012 article in the Wall Street Journal, which reported that 80 percent of young New York City professionals work regularly from bed thanks to today’s extensive digital technology, Beatriz Colomina establishes that a unique horizontal architecture has taken over between the bed inserted in the office and the office inserted in the bed. It is magnified by the “flat” networks of social media that have themselves been fully integrated into the professional, business and industrial environment in a collapse of traditional distinctions between private and public, work and play, rest and action.
What is the architecture of this new space and time? What is the nature of this new interior that we have collectvely decided to occupy? What is the architecture of this prison in which night and day or work and play are no longer differentiated and we are permanently under surveillance, even as we sleep in the control booth?

Questions like these are fielded by Beatriz Colomina and are also taken up in manifold ways by the curators involved in the project. The curators situate both the fictive and the real spaces and architectures that are so indicative of the age of globally networked activity at the heart of their exhibitions. And they critically question and negotiate the bed as a site of social, cultural, artistic, psychological, medical, sexual, and economic transactions.

The fact that art often serves to mirror current conditions within society is once again evident in the individual contributions to curated by_vienna: The Century of the Bed. Moreover, the project offers an insightful perspective on different curatorial and artistic practices.

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