Curators and Participants

Curators Exhibitions

Elisabeth Falkensteiner

Elisabeth Falkensteiner lives and works in Vienna. Having studied political science, she completed the postgraduate program in ecm—educating/curating/managing. Falkensteiner cocurated Reform Act, an exhibition and festival series at the intersection between visual arts, performance, and sound (2017–2018), and the Angewandte Festival (2018, 2019). She also participated in the exhibition res.o.nant at the Jewish Museum Berlin (2019) with a sound piece and published regularly in EIKON and PW-Magazine. Most recently Falkensteiner authored the concept of the Angewandte’s supporting program for the VIENNA BIENNALE 2019.

Anab Jain

A designer, filmmaker, and futurist, Anab Jain cofounded the vanguard laboratory, design and film studio Superflux with Jon Ardern to parse uncertainties around our shared futures. From climate change and growing inequality to the emergence of artificial intelligence and the future of work, Superflux explores some of the biggest challenges of our times—and investigates the potential and unintended consequences of these challenges. Jain is also professor and program leader at Studio Design Investigations, University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her work has won awards from Apple Computers Inc., UNESCO, ICSID, and the UK Government’s Innovation Department and has been exhibited at MoMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Vitra Design Museum, and the National Museum of China, among others.

Hubert Klumpner

Hubert Klumpner is an architect, design principal, and director of the Swissbased “urbanthinktank_next.” He lives in Zurich. As cofounder of Urban-Think Tank (U-TT), he is considered one of the originators of the “social turn,” a movement that had its breakthrough in 2010 with the MoMA exhibition Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement. Klumpner is full professor at the ETH Zurich, where he holds the chair of architecture and urban design. He studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna with Hans Hollein and at Columbia University, New York, as a Fulbright Scholar. U-TT has received numerous awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Gold Holcim Award, and the Chicago Museum of Architecture and Design Award. With ETH and SECO, Klumpner is currently constructing the project Fábrica de Cultura in Barranquilla (Colombia) and developing the general plan for the City of Sarajevo.

Ibrahim Mahama

Ibrahim Mahama lives and works as an artist in Accra, Kumasi, and Tamale (Ghana). His artistic practice is led by his interest in the history of materials and architecture, as well as by alternative perspectives of looking into the materials and labor conditions of society. His work has been included in the 56th, 57th, and 58th Venice Biennale, and in documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel. He also made several international contributions to the 22nd Biennale of Sydney. His current interests are using specific architectural forms within history in the formation of spaces inspired by the potentialities and failures of modernity.

Baerbel Mueller

Baerbel Mueller lives and works as an architect and researcher in Austria and Ghana. She is head of the [applied] Foreign Affairs lab at the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, which investigates spatial and cultural phenomena in rural and urban Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. She is the founder of nav_s baerbel mueller [navigations in the field of architecture and urban research within diverse cultural contexts]. Her work comprises architecture, urban research, installations, scenography, and curatorial projects. Mueller contributed to e.g., the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006, the Museum of Architecture at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich in 2013, and the Marrakech Biennale in 2016.

Marlies Wirth

Marlies Wirth has worked at the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, since 2006. As the curator of digital culture she has a key role in the programming of the VIENNA BIENNALE and heads the MAK Design Collection. She curates exhibitions and programs in the fields of art, architecture, design, and technology, such as UNCANNY VALUES: Artificial Intelligence & You and the re-installation of the MAK DESIGN LAB in the context of the VIENNA BIENNALE FOR CHANGE 2019. She is part of the curatorial team of the international traveling exhibition Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine (a cooperation between the Vitra Design Museum, the MAK, and the Design Museum Gent) and was co-director for the 12th Global Art Forum in Dubai and Singapore (2018). In 2019 she was the curator of the official Austrian contribution to the 22nd Milan Triennial (design team: EOOS), which received two awards.

Curators Discursive Program

Laura Amann & Aziza Harmel

Laura Amann (*1986) is a curator and architect. Laura teaches at the Technical University of Vienna and co-founded Significant Other, a project space looking at spaces inhabited by art and architecture. Recent projects looked at acts of joy, intimacy, desire, and sensuality and how they produce spaces for disobedience.

Aziza Harmel (*1985) is a curator and writer. Aziza worked at Documenta 14 and Steirischer Herbst 2018. In 2019, she co-curated a research program on curatorial knowledge—Qayyem—which was roaming between Alexandria, Amman, and Tangier. She also co-curated the twelfth edition of the Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography in Bamako, Mali.
Both are currently part of the curatorial team at Kunsthalle Wien.

Wolfgang Brunner, Michaela Schmidlechner, Michael Simku, Martin Walkner

Wolfgang Brunner (*1958) studied graphic arts at the Vienna Art School as well as journalism and communication studies and art history at the University of Vienna. As an art educator he also worked for Bawag Foundation, MAK, MUSA, and many more.

Michaela Schmidlechner (*1975) studied painting at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin and conceptual art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Since 2018 she is part of the art education team at Kunsthalle Wien.

Michael Simku (*1985) studied Fine Arts (with a focus on film and digital media) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In addition to working for Kunsthalle Wien, he realizes his own artistic and film projects.

Martin Walkner (*1977) studied education at the University of Vienna and worked at the Zoom Kindermuseum. Since 2009 he has been working for Kunsthalle Wien; additionally, he is part of the immersive theatre company Nesterval.