What is an exhibition space today? How do we use it? Visual artist Aldo Giannotti and choreographer Karin Pauer, together with curator Lisa Ortner-Kreil, have developed an extraordinary project that transforms the exhibition space into a construction site where the boundary between art and work becomes blurred over time to find answers to these questions.

HOUSE OF CONSTRUCTS sees itself as a site for various practices of collective meaning-making and opens up a field of action between the perception of time, working practices and the canonized approach to an exhibition space. Walls become the surface for constantly growing messages and drawings, the audience is invited to "do the work" themselves. Stage elements, scaffolding, paint, and instruments become tools to achieve the common goal. Sound, light and the security guards are integrated into the process.

The audience is encouraged to engage with the project in a self-determined way, which takes place between exhibition, performance, participation, and music. The premises of the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien - used since 1989 for exhibitions of visual art in the classical format - function as a space for encounters and the unfinished, the process, the vulnerable in-between in which art is created.

The project is being realised in cooperation with brut Wien and with the support of the City of Vienna's Department of Cultural Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.

Opening on Wednesday, 12 June 2024

Book presentation on Monday, 24 June 2024, 6 p.m. 

PROGRAM NINETEEN MUSEUMS

For each of the nineteen days of the exhibition, Aldo Giannotti has worked out a different process-oriented scenario. Together with choreographer Karin Pauer, visual artists, choirs, performers, musicians, museum guards and further staff of the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien explore the multifaceted potential of exhibition spaces. The main hall of the institution transforms daily through instruction-based interventions, proposing NINETEEN MUSEUMS – nineteen alternative museums. Workshops, performances, discussions and encounters turn the space into an arena of human interaction.

DAY 1 MUSEUM OF SECURITY

OPENING: Wednesday, 12 June 2024, 7 p.m.

For the opening, 30 additional museum guards will be on duty at Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien.
 

DAY 2 MUSEUM OF RECREATION

Thursday, 13 June 2024

A sculpture spelling out dopolavoro is created live during the exhibition's opening hours. For the rest of the show, it serves as an after-work meeting spot for museum staff, visitors, and artists alike.

A collaboration with Peter Sandbichler.

DAY 3 MUSEUM OF INCLUSION
Friday, 14 June 2024

A call centre is set up in the main space of the institution with the task to reach out to random citizens of Vienna and invite them to the exhibition. These calls are broadcasted live.

DAY 4 MUSEUM OF VOICES

Saturday, 15 June 2024

Different choirs with diverse musical specialization from all over the city are invited to hold a collective rehearsal in the institution.

A collaboration with Construction Choir Collective.

DAY 5 MUSEUM OF DRAWING 

Sunday, 16 June 2024

An nude-drawing class is organized in which the artist himself poses as model.

A collaboration with Peter Fritzenwallner.

DISCLAIMER: HOUSE OF CONSTRUCTS is hosting the act-drawing class featuring Peter Fritzenwallner today. In this context, Peter Fritzenwallner will be posing nude as a model. Visitors under the age of 14 may only attend the exhibition if accompanied by a guardian. Visitors who might find the sight of a naked man offensive or disturbing are advised to avoid the life drawing class.

DAY 6 MUSEUM OF REFLECTION

Monday, 17 June 2024

Two performers engage in an ongoing listing of things that worked and things that didn’t work throughout the history of mankind.

A collaboration with Pierluca Coiro & Anna Mendelssohn.

DAY 7 MUSEUM OF RESONANCE

Tuesday, 18 June 2024

A drum set is divided into all its parts. Seven drummers are invited to each play one of the elements simultaneously throughout the opening hours of the exhibition.

A collaboration with Stefan Frankenberger.

DAY 8 MUSEUM OF PRODUCTION

Wednesday, 19 June 2024

The office staff of Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien move their workplace to the main exhibition space for the day.

DAY 9 MUSEUM OF CHOREOGRAPHY

Thursday, 20 June 2024

All the institution’s technicians will join in an all-day work-in-progress to create a choreographed performance.

A collaboration with Karin Pauer.

With: Fabio Balestra, Ingrid Brunecová, Remo Cocco, Thomas Gallhuber, Jonas Nielsen.

DAY 10 MUSEUM OF ARCHITECTURE

Friday, 21 June 2024

Italians living in Vienna are invited to meet and socialize on a square podium in the main exhibition room from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., recreating the social architecture of a forum.

DAY 11 MUSEUM OF EXPOSURE

Saturday, 22 June 2024

A spontaneous performance takes place throughout the day by people dancing and singing along to their favourite playlists.

DAY 12 MUSEUM OF PREPARATION

Sunday, 23 June 2024

Various conferences are continuously organized and re-organized throughout the day.

A collaboration with Carolina Cappelli.

DAY 13 MUSEUM OF CONTEXT

Monday, 24 June 2024

A performance takes place throughout the day in which the museum guards engage in conversations with visitors. At 6 p.m. there will be a book presentation of the artist’s latest publication “the upside down museum”.

A collaboration with the daily newspaper Kurier.

DAY 14 MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS

Tuesday, 25 June 2024

A workshop is organized with children aged 6 to 10 years. After showing them the entire infrastructure of the institution, they are encouraged to draw imaginary alternative museums. The outcome is displayed in the main hall for the rest of the day, officially making it the children’s first exhibition.

A collaboration with Soho in Ottakring.

Registration necessary: vermittlung@kunstforumwien.at

Free admission for children

Reduced admission for accompanying person: EUR 6.-

Workshop from 2.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.

DAY 15 MUSEUM OF DIALOGUE

Wednesday, 26 June 2024

A situation is set up where visitors find themselves in conversations about labour.

A collaboration with Anna Maria Nowak & Alexander Gottfarb.

DAY 16 MUSEUM OF FEEDBACK

Thursday, 27 June 2024

A film crew produces a documentary all day at the exhibition, asking visitors about their relationship to art.The outcome is screened at 8 p.m.

A collaboration with Viktor Schaider.

DAY 17 MUSEUM OF SURPRISES

Friday, 28 June 2024

This day is kept free for last-minute ideas.

DAY 18 MUSEUM OF DECONSTRUCTION

Saturday, 29 June 2024

Artists and technical staff gather to dismantle parts of the exhibition and to prepare the main hall for the final intervention.

DAY 19 MUSEUM OF TOGETHERNESS

Sunday, 30 June 2024

“This is where we draw the line” – a performance developed by Karin Pauer and Aldo Giannotti in 2019 – concludes the exhibition. 

Performance at 7 p.m.

A collaboration with Arttu Palmio & Paolo Monti/the starpillow.