Queer Museum Vienna
 | |
| Established | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Location | Vienna, Austria |
| Type | Queer art and cultural history museum initiative |
| Website | www |
Queer Museum Vienna is a cultural initiative and museum project in Vienna, Austria, dedicated to queer art, culture and history. It first appeared publicly in January 2022 as a temporary guest project at the Volkskundemuseum Wien.[1][2] Contemporary Austrian media described the project as a museum initiative intended to give greater visibility to queer art and culture in Vienna.[2][3]
History
[edit]Discussions about establishing a queer museum in Vienna had been taking place since 2019, according to FM4.[2] Because the initiative did not yet have a fixed location, it was hosted temporarily by the Volkskundemuseum Wien, where it was given two rooms for exhibitions and events.[2][4] ORF Wien described the opening in January 2022 as the first queer museum in Vienna.[1]
The first exhibition shown in the Volkskundemuseum rooms was If there is something weird in your neighborhood by Alfred Rottensteiner, curated by The DODO Project.[2][3] FM4 presented the exhibition as a preview of what a future queer museum in Vienna might look like, while noting that the temporary rooms could not yet represent the full range of queer art.[2]
After being hosted by the Volkskundemuseum Wien from January 2022 to August 2023, Queer Museum Vienna moved to rooms at the Otto Wagner Areal in November 2023.[5][6][7] In 2024, Wien Holding reported on the exhibition Is Queer Political? at the Queer Museum Vienna at the Otto Wagner Areal, giving the location as Baumgartner Höhe 1 in Vienna's 14th district.[6]
About
[edit]Queer Museum Vienna is a non-profit, self-organized collective that serves as an anchor for queer urban history and contemporary queer art, with an anti-patriarchal focus on research, education, community building and inclusivity.[8][9] It questions forms of oppression based on gender and sexuality while promoting diversity through exhibitions, collaborations and non-normative organization.[8]
Programme
[edit]The museum's programme includes exhibitions, talks, public lectures, film screenings, educational programmes and other events dealing with queer art, culture and community life.[8] During its guest period at the Volkskundemuseum, FM4 reported that the project planned rapidly changing exhibitions and events with different focuses, including programming for Black History Month.[2]
In 2026, Queer Museum Vienna launched What’s Missing?, a lecture series on queer art history curated by Kero Fichter, Florian Aschka, and Eugenia Seleznova.[10] The series was later discussed in Zebrabutter and in Benno Hilgers’s essay “Queer Art History as Institutional Critique” as a public-facing programme concerned with gaps in art-historical representation and queer visibility in museums and archives.[11][12]
Awards
[edit]In 2022, Queer Museum Vienna received the main Preis der freien Szene Wiens for Queer Museum @ Volkskundemuseum Wien.[13] The prize was awarded by IG Kultur Wien and funded by the City of Vienna.[14]
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Erstes queeres Museum in Wien eröffnet". ORF Wien. 20 January 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Riegler, David (16 January 2022). "Ein queeres Museum in Wien". FM4. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- 1 2 Oezelt, Nina (13 January 2022). "Ein "queeres" Volkskundemuseum in Wien". Kurier. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- ↑ "Queer Museum Vienna". Independent Space Index. 1 April 2023. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- ↑ "Queer Museum Vienna im Otto Wagner Areal". Volkskundemuseum Wien. 9 April 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- 1 2 "Neue Ausstellung im Queer Museum Vienna am Otto Wagner Areal". Wien Holding. 22 March 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- ↑ "QUEER MUSEUM VIENNA". Otto Wagner Areal Wien. 12 January 2025. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Queer Museum Vienna". UNESCO Policy Monitoring Platform. 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- ↑ "Queer Museum Vienna". Independent Space Index. 31 December 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- ↑ "What's Missing?". Queer Museum Vienna. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- ↑ Grenzfurthner, Johannes (5 June 2026). "Kero Fichter und der queere Blick auf die Alten Meister". Zebrabutter (in German). Retrieved 6 June 2026.
- ↑ Hilgers, Benno (2026). "Queer Art History as Institutional Critique: On Kero Fichter's work as a practice of queer interpretation, public pedagogy, and institutional critique". Queering Activism. monochrom. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
- ↑ "Auszeichnung für „Queer Museum Vienna"". ORF Wien. 28 October 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- ↑ "Preis der freien Szene Wiens 2022". IG Kultur Wien. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
