Posts tagged KHM

Oscar winner Maximilian Schell features in a new campaign to publicise the reopening of the Kunstkammer

One whole wing of Vienna’s Art History Museum (KHM) has been closed for ‘renovation’ since before I first came (which was seven years ago). The Kunstkammer  closure has attracted much press and political to-ing and fro-ing about where the money should come from and how much it was costing. After some high-profile campaigns (see for example this post from August) to raise sponsorship and publicity, the date for reopening has been set for 1st March 2013. 

As well as household name Maximilian Schell starring in this video, Swarovski - another Austrian institution - has dedicated their window display to the Kunstkammer.

khm.at

Vienna’s Art History Museum (KHM) is on a sponsoring drive for the reopening of it’s applied arts (Kunstkammer) wing which has been closed for the past 10 years. As well as innovative ideas to garner publicity and raise expectations (a 3D preview outside the museum - see photo below), the museum is also selling ski and cycle helmets. For each €49 helmet, €28 is “for your safety, €21 for the Kunstkammer”.  

Another product for sale as part of the campaign manages to also bring a social element in too: the Caritas Kunstkammer bags are made in cooperation with a large charity (think Oxfam) by employing young people with work experience and training, by turning the large publicity tarps from temporary exhibitions into bags and purses. 

The Theseus Temple in Vienna’s Volksgarten is a Grecian-style temple built in 1819-1923. It was originally built to house just one piece of art: the sculpture entitled “Theseus defeats the Centaurs”. The sculpture was however removed at the end of the 19th century and is now the centrepiece of the Art History Museum’s (Kunsthistorisches Museum) dramatic staircase. 

Following an extensive renovation in the last years, and as part of the the KMH’s Modern and Contemporary Art Programme, the temple is once more being put to it’s original use to house exceptional works of contemporary art, one at a time. The current exhibit - Ugo Rodinone - is the first is series of exhibitions that aim to do just that. 

The Theseus Temple is free to enter and is set in the beautiful Volksgarten, in the heart of the city and just a two minute walk from the main museum itself and several of it’s satellite branches.