…creating anything in such a time requires resilience, flexibility, and the ability to adapt

-Laura Stöckler and Daniel Lichterwaldt (Representative for Les Nouveaux Riches Magazine for Contemporary Art and Culture)

- Shared by Ale Zapata

“When your movement and freedom is restricted in the way we’re experiencing it now, it is easy to fall into a state of paralysis which is only worsened by the loss of routines, interactions, and perspectives. The situation is as complex as every individual life. This is why we don’t want to attempt to solve the question of what our current predicament might mean, which chances and challenges it might encompass.
One thing, however, seems clear: creating anything in such a time requires resilience, flexibility, and the ability to adapt.
Our goal as a magazine is to give emerging and established artists and galleries the opportunity to showcase their work to a diverse audience and to open up space for dialogue and exchange between the different parties.
But how can we connect people when we feel separated from our own lives? How can we support each other when we feel destabilised ourselves?  Again, I think that there is no concrete answer, no action plan, no magic solution - unfortunately. We just found that in such circumstances, doing the best you can and working with what you’ve got - both in terms of personal and material resources - has got to suffice.
For us this meant thinking of new ways in which we could foster exchange and interaction. By starting to publish short video interviews with selected artists, we tried to re-establish a sense of immediacy and accessibility in the artist - audience communication; one that we hope resembles in a way the conversations you might have going to an exhibition opening.
In addition, we’re working on launching a discussion-based podcast, which will be exploring in more detail relevant issues and topics of the contemporary art scene. Furthermore, the release of our third issue, focusing on the Art scene of Linz and Vienna, is more than overdue… And in the light of recent events (and announcements) I think it’s not too far-fetched to say that things are looking up again, and we’re excited to - hopefully - be able to invite and see you all there soon.
Until then, we won’t stop providing you with a generous dose of contemporary art, which you can discover both on Instagram and on our website, where you’ll also find straightforward and succinct texts and interviews with national and international artists.
We have moreover curated a selection of artworks created in Austria during the last 6 weeks - an online exhibition if you will, celebrating creativity despite restriction and not coming to a standstill despite a lockdown. ”

Cool kids from Les Nouveaux Riches chose Improper Walls to host their 3rd magazine release launch party, sadly we had to cancel the event as well as other exhibitions we had planned. Rescheduling our very promising current exhibition programm was a heartbreaking experience, but we also see this challenge as an opportunity to support other collectives and an exercise of our ability to adapt.

During the quaranteen period LNR curated an amazing selection of Vienna based artist which will be showncased at Improper Walls from the 20 -29th of May. I invite you to get to know the artists!