PREAMBLE
Kunst im öffentlichen Raum GmbH constantly reconsiders the changing relationship between art, society, and urban space. It sees its task in presenting artistic positions that explore the current situation of the city, its inhabitants, and its spaces. Supporting the development of new works of art, it strives to make an active contribution to the shaping of urban life.
The potential of art lies in the concatenation of different forms of perception, thinking, experimental setup, and aesthetic experience. Art is capable of bringing forth forms and modes of appropriation with which it responds to, helps to mold, and temporarily transforms specific places and situations in the city. This is how it can encourage a new perception of the city as well as a different way of acting and experiencing one’s everyday life.
Markus Ambach
artist, curator and author
Born in Darmstadt (DE) in 1963. Artist, curator, author and initiator of numerous art projects and exhibitions in public space. Lives in Düsseldorf.
Studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and, after numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad, founded the project platform MAP, which develops, curates, and produces context-related projects in urban space as well as thematic exhibitions in collaboration with various partners such as municipal authorities, museums, or urban players on an international scale. The resultant formats have shed light on the relationship between art, society, urbanity, and the city in such exhibitions as B1|A40 – Die Schönheit der großen Straße (The Beauty of the Grand Road), Ein ahnungsloser Traum vom Park (An Innocent Dream of a Park), or Choreografie einer Landschaft (Choreography of a Landscape), which were carried out together with artists, scientists, residents, and other social groups. MAP also takes a specific interest in the issue of “representations of nature in the urban context.” Exhibition projects realized in gardens, parks, and other places of public interpretations of nature explore the connections between city, art, and nature. Markus Ambach is politically active in various fields and groups and is involved in supporting the foundation of an art board in Düsseldorf.
Teaching appointments at a number of academies and colleges like the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts, the Berlin University of the Arts, and the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach a. M.
Studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and, after numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad, founded the project platform MAP, which develops, curates, and produces context-related projects in urban space as well as thematic exhibitions in collaboration with various partners such as municipal authorities, museums, or urban players on an international scale. The resultant formats have shed light on the relationship between art, society, urbanity, and the city in such exhibitions as B1|A40 – Die Schönheit der großen Straße (The Beauty of the Grand Road), Ein ahnungsloser Traum vom Park (An Innocent Dream of a Park), or Choreografie einer Landschaft (Choreography of a Landscape), which were carried out together with artists, scientists, residents, and other social groups. MAP also takes a specific interest in the issue of “representations of nature in the urban context.” Exhibition projects realized in gardens, parks, and other places of public interpretations of nature explore the connections between city, art, and nature. Markus Ambach is politically active in various fields and groups and is involved in supporting the foundation of an art board in Düsseldorf.
Teaching appointments at a number of academies and colleges like the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts, the Berlin University of the Arts, and the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach a. M.
Claudia Büttner
art historian and curator
Born in Buchholz i. d. Nordheide (DE) in 1965; did a PhD in art history and works as a curator. Lives in Munich.
Specialized in public art, Claudia Büttner has conceived and managed exhibitions and projects in public space such as SkulpturProjekte in Münster in 1997 and DreamCity in Munich in 1999. 1999–2003 director of kunstprojekte_riem, a model program for art in public space in Munich comprising more than twenty art projects, events, and an international symposium. She taught art history at the Technische Universität Berlin from 1990 to 1995, at the TU Munich in 1999, and as a guest professor in Linz in 2002. Consultant for the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing (today: Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure), for which she has been responsible for six studies (e.g. on art in architecture in state-owned buildings, in the private sector, and in properties in the possession of Germany’s federal states, the history of art in architecture). Holds lectures, writes essays, advises communities in Germany and abroad on the implementation of art programs, and sits on juries and boards like that of Festival der Regionen 2017.
Specialized in public art, Claudia Büttner has conceived and managed exhibitions and projects in public space such as SkulpturProjekte in Münster in 1997 and DreamCity in Munich in 1999. 1999–2003 director of kunstprojekte_riem, a model program for art in public space in Munich comprising more than twenty art projects, events, and an international symposium. She taught art history at the Technische Universität Berlin from 1990 to 1995, at the TU Munich in 1999, and as a guest professor in Linz in 2002. Consultant for the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing (today: Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure), for which she has been responsible for six studies (e.g. on art in architecture in state-owned buildings, in the private sector, and in properties in the possession of Germany’s federal states, the history of art in architecture). Holds lectures, writes essays, advises communities in Germany and abroad on the implementation of art programs, and sits on juries and boards like that of Festival der Regionen 2017.
Sonja Huber
Head of the department of fine arts and new media in the cultural department of the city of Vienna
*1972 Vienna; art historian, lives in Vienna.
Studied in Vienna and Berlin. 2000 – 2004 collection and exhibition management, among others in the collection of contemporary art of the city of Vienna as well as from 2005 to 2007 exhibition coordination and curatorial cooperation in the Kunsthalle Krems. 2007 - 2012 production management at KÖR public art Vienna. 2013 - 2014 funding management at departure - The Creative Agency of the City of Vienna: Leader of the funding programs departure_pioneer and departure_experts, coordination of network activities / cluster measures for the creative industries and conducting artistic-architectural competitions and project work at the departure study "Räume Kreativer Nutzung. Potenziale für Wien". 2015/16 direction of Art | Research | Service at the Academy of Fine Arts and from 2016 exhibition coordination of xhibit - the exhibition space for contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Since 2018 Head of the Department of Visual Arts and New Media (MA 7).
Studied in Vienna and Berlin. 2000 – 2004 collection and exhibition management, among others in the collection of contemporary art of the city of Vienna as well as from 2005 to 2007 exhibition coordination and curatorial cooperation in the Kunsthalle Krems. 2007 - 2012 production management at KÖR public art Vienna. 2013 - 2014 funding management at departure - The Creative Agency of the City of Vienna: Leader of the funding programs departure_pioneer and departure_experts, coordination of network activities / cluster measures for the creative industries and conducting artistic-architectural competitions and project work at the departure study "Räume Kreativer Nutzung. Potenziale für Wien". 2015/16 direction of Art | Research | Service at the Academy of Fine Arts and from 2016 exhibition coordination of xhibit - the exhibition space for contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Since 2018 Head of the Department of Visual Arts and New Media (MA 7).
Doris Krüger
KÖR jury president, artist
Born in Vienna (AT) in 1974. Artist, lives in Vienna. Collaboration with Walter Pardeller since 2006.
Krüger & Pardeller explore how social interaction influences material space and how, contrariwise, spatial concepts and objects inform social constellations. They see their works as platforms where individual and social notions of form and aesthetics and, consequently, the models of our living together based on them can be negotiated. The range of the duo’s works spans from projects in public space, institutional exhibitions, installations, and sculptures to exhibition designs, publications, and curatorial concepts. Their approach is characterized by a sensitive treatment of history, as documented by the design for a plaza in Seestadt Aspern or the adaptation of Vienna’s first public garage from the 1960s. Since 2006 teaching post at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts and University of Applied Arts. 2011–2013 member of the Photography Advisory Board of the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Member of the Vienna Secession. Editor of Aesthetic Basic Chronicle, vol. 1, Sternberg Press: Berlin, 2014, and The Phenomenon of Space in Art, Architecture and Design, Springer: Vienna/New York, 2008.
Selected exhibitions: SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art, Montreal (CA), 2016; Austrian Cultural Forum New York (US), 2015; 21er Haus, Vienna (A), 2014; National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (DK), Museion, Bozen (IT), 2011; MAK, Vienna (A), 2012; AA, London (UK), ISCP, New York (US), 2010; Kiesler Foundation, Vienna (A), 2009.
Krüger & Pardeller explore how social interaction influences material space and how, contrariwise, spatial concepts and objects inform social constellations. They see their works as platforms where individual and social notions of form and aesthetics and, consequently, the models of our living together based on them can be negotiated. The range of the duo’s works spans from projects in public space, institutional exhibitions, installations, and sculptures to exhibition designs, publications, and curatorial concepts. Their approach is characterized by a sensitive treatment of history, as documented by the design for a plaza in Seestadt Aspern or the adaptation of Vienna’s first public garage from the 1960s. Since 2006 teaching post at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts and University of Applied Arts. 2011–2013 member of the Photography Advisory Board of the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Member of the Vienna Secession. Editor of Aesthetic Basic Chronicle, vol. 1, Sternberg Press: Berlin, 2014, and The Phenomenon of Space in Art, Architecture and Design, Springer: Vienna/New York, 2008.
Selected exhibitions: SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art, Montreal (CA), 2016; Austrian Cultural Forum New York (US), 2015; 21er Haus, Vienna (A), 2014; National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (DK), Museion, Bozen (IT), 2011; MAK, Vienna (A), 2012; AA, London (UK), ISCP, New York (US), 2010; Kiesler Foundation, Vienna (A), 2009.
Michael Obrist
architect, feld72 Architekten ZT GmbH and University professor
Born in Bolzano (IT) in 1972. Lives and works in Vienna and Linz.
Founding member and partner of feld72 – architektur und urbane strategien (Anne Catherine Fleith, Michael Obrist, Mario Paintner, Richard Scheich, Peter Zoderer).
feld72 operates at the interface of architecture, applied urbanism, and art. feld72 has realized numerous projects of different sizes from master plans, buildings, urbans studies, exhibition designs to urban strategies and large-area interventions in public space both in Austria and abroad.
Since 2014 guest professor for the space&designstrategies program at the University of Art and Design Linz. Numerous teaching appointments in Austria and abroad (Vienna University of Technology; University of Art and Design Linz; Bauhaus Kolleg Dessau; Bergen Architecture School, Norway; Graz University of Technology; Fondazione Antonio Presti “Fiumara d’Arte,” Sicily). Head of the public space master class at the Summer Academy of Salzburg in 2016 and 2015 and the Architectural Association Visiting School Slovenia 2015.
Since July 2018 University professor of architecture and planning at the institute of architecture and design at Vienna University of Technology.
Selected exhibitions: La Biennale di Venezia (IT), 2016, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2004; Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt a. M. (DE), 2015; MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome (IT), 2015, 2012; Hong Kong & Shenzhen Biennial (CN), 2009; Biennial of the Canaries (ES), 2009; Contemporary Art Triennial Guangzhou (CN), 2008; Architecture Biennial São Paulo (BR), 2007; Architecture Biennial Rotterdam (NL), 2003.
Founding member and partner of feld72 – architektur und urbane strategien (Anne Catherine Fleith, Michael Obrist, Mario Paintner, Richard Scheich, Peter Zoderer).
feld72 operates at the interface of architecture, applied urbanism, and art. feld72 has realized numerous projects of different sizes from master plans, buildings, urbans studies, exhibition designs to urban strategies and large-area interventions in public space both in Austria and abroad.
Since 2014 guest professor for the space&designstrategies program at the University of Art and Design Linz. Numerous teaching appointments in Austria and abroad (Vienna University of Technology; University of Art and Design Linz; Bauhaus Kolleg Dessau; Bergen Architecture School, Norway; Graz University of Technology; Fondazione Antonio Presti “Fiumara d’Arte,” Sicily). Head of the public space master class at the Summer Academy of Salzburg in 2016 and 2015 and the Architectural Association Visiting School Slovenia 2015.
Since July 2018 University professor of architecture and planning at the institute of architecture and design at Vienna University of Technology.
Selected exhibitions: La Biennale di Venezia (IT), 2016, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2004; Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt a. M. (DE), 2015; MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome (IT), 2015, 2012; Hong Kong & Shenzhen Biennial (CN), 2009; Biennial of the Canaries (ES), 2009; Contemporary Art Triennial Guangzhou (CN), 2008; Architecture Biennial São Paulo (BR), 2007; Architecture Biennial Rotterdam (NL), 2003.