Contemporary art in Mumok: Exciting journey of discovery from May 23rd!

Contemporary art in Mumok: Exciting journey of discovery from May 23rd!

mumok, Wien, Österreich - On May 21, 2025, the Mumok in Vienna opened the exhibition "The World of Tomorrow will have been another present". At the press tour, curator Franz Thalmair explained that the title alludes to specific and speculative aspects of art history. The show, which will be shown by April 6, 2026, includes works of important contemporary artists.

The exhibition offers the audience a variety of memories and reflections on current topics. The artist Lisl Ponger artifacts that are presented ominously on a pedestal, including deathheads, shows an edition of "National Geographic", African clothing and printed tea boothers. These objects, which are no longer real, invite visitors to search for traces. Pongers works, such as photography "ghost caution" from 2012, postpone the focus from the overall picture to the details and back.

The examination of colonial topics

Frida Orupabo goes one step further in her work under the title "Against the colonial look" by addressing sexualized and racified women's bodies in various media. Her work is relocated to the sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois and Constantin Brâncuși, who is represented with the work "La Négressen Blonde II" (1933). Another highlight is Anita Witek's exhibition section "Utopian Architectures", which presents collages and assemblies which use the mass -medially common photographs.

NIKITA KADAN addresses “war and violence” and confronts his personal reality of life with historical representations of violence. An impressive work by Kadan adorns the Mumok outer facade: "On Protection of the Monuments", which shows enlarged reproductions of a destroyed monument from Hostomel. Barbara Kapusta's "fragile body", consisting of gender-neutral, oversized aluminum sculptures, is in dialogue with Fritz Wotruba's bronze sculpture "Sitting" from 1929.

colonial legacy in focus

The discussion about colonial predatory art is currently experiencing a highly up -to -date debate, especially in Germany. French President Macron had already announced the return of colonial predatory art to Africa in 2017, which put German politics under pressure, especially with regard to the Humboldt Forum. It is increasingly required that the German institutions that work with colonial artifacts deal more intensively with their history. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier recently emphasized the need to critically question the colonial history, while Hermann Parzinger from the Prussian Cultural Ownership Foundation sees this as an opportunity for intercultural dialogue that could also include restitution of exhibits such as Benin bronze.

However, postcolonial criticism, especially with regard to the Humboldt Forum, is often perceived as apparently one-sided. Many experts demand that provenance research should not serve as an alibi for time game. It is necessary to make clear decisions about the restitution of colonial objects in order to give further discussions about dealing with colonial heirs and memories. This problem is also reflected in dealing with the German genocide to Herero and Nama, which shows how closely the debates about predatory art and historical injustice are interwoven.

The exhibition in the Mumok therefore not only offers an insight into contemporary art, but also into the multi -layered questions that arise from dealing with colonial heritage. The accompanying catalog for the exhibition will be published by Walther and Franz König in mid -June and will surely be a valuable document for this discussion.

Further information on the current debates about colonial predatory art and the Humboldt Forum are on the websites of the , Süddeutsche Zeitung and DW to be found.