Vernissage: April 30, 6 PM
Exhibition duration: May 1–June 13, 2025
Artists: Florian Aschka & Larissa Kopp, Zira Reyesna, Salma Shaka, and Peter Várnai & Sarah Wilhelmy
The exhibition Fragile Foundations: Art, Mental Health, and Housing Precarity is a continuation of the series that has been organized annually since 2020 in relation to Mental Health Awareness Month. This year, the project focuses on the complexities of housing (in)stability with four artistic positions selected via open call. Through various media, the artists bring attention to the privatization of social housing and public spaces, the vulnerability and risks accompanying migrants moving to Vienna, as well as the expanded understanding of the topic beyond physical instability to the existential homelessness caused by displacement, war, and colonial violence. All selected works are reminders of our individual and collective power—a call to action—to take up space and organize against oppression.
The exhibition is accompanied by a public program consisting of two screening events, a lecture-performance, and a discussion.
While Vienna's renowned social housing model has been in place for over 100 years, and the city has been voted the most livable city three times in a row, the living conditions in and outside of Vienna remain precarious for many artists and cultural workers, among others, disproportionately affecting refugees, immigrants from outside EU, BIPOC and Queer people. In addition, the extreme increase in domestic violence cases during the COVID-19 pandemic-enforced lockdowns proved that physical shelters do not equal safety, and many are forced to share the space where they are most vulnerable with abusers. At the moment, the alternatives for some marginalized groups are offered in the capital by self-organized activists through community-run housing projects like Türkis Rosa Lila Villa or Planet 10, but certainly without the capacity to cater to everyone excluded from the social support system or residing elsewhere.
The exhibition project is designed to strengthen artists' positions in public discourse and highlight the prerequisites of a successful artistic process, such as stable, safe and affordable accommodation.
PUBLIC PROGRAM
〰️
PUBLIC PROGRAM 〰️
Screening#1:
May 3, 7:30 pm
Marin Shamov: HOUSE
Lecture-performance:
May 7, 7 pm
Pedro del Real Lavergne: People's Workout: The Fight for Space & Sport
Screening#2:
May 31, 7:30 pm
With short films by Anahi Juárez, Çağla Gillis, Lenka Štěpánková, Yevheniia Kriuk, Yuliia Sudarchykova, and Tamás Hegyi
Dates to be announced soon:
# Discussion about the accessibility of housing and community-run alternatives in Vienna hosted by Zoe Gudović
# Installation activation by Salma Shaka
Curated by Barbora Horská
Visual Design by Ale Zapata
The exhibition is supported by MA7, BMWKMS and 15th District.
