{"id":14417,"date":"2019-04-01T05:57:49","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T04:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=14417"},"modified":"2025-01-27T14:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T13:09:09","slug":"talking-heads-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/belvedere-sites\/talking-heads-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Heads exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/orangeriesmall.jpg\" alt=\"Orangerie windows\" class=\"wp-image-13651\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/orangeriesmall.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/orangeriesmall-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>If we ignore Kimt&#8217;s <em>The Kiss<\/em> for the minute, a real treat of a trip to Vienna&#8217;s Belvedere is the collection of 18th-century busts by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>Talking Heads<\/em> exhibition juxtaposes his sculptures with contemporary works that share a &#8220;head&#8221; theme. It&#8217;s an eyebrow-raising experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Features notable artists like Arnulf Rainer and Maria Lassnig<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Includes photos, paintings, sculptures, video installations, and more<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12 of Messerschmidt&#8217;s busts are also there<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Runs Mar 8 &#8211; Aug 18, 2019<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Entrance included in a Lower Belvedere ticket<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sightseeing\/vienna-museums\/belvedere\/\">Belvedere times and tickets<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/exhibitions\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"37363\">Current &amp; future exhibitions<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Messerschmidt and Talking Heads<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/talkingheadsexhibition.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14424\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/talkingheadsexhibition.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/talkingheadsexhibition-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(A Messerschmidt bust and Arnulf Rainer&#8217;s overdrawn photos. Photo: Johannes Stoll, \u00a9 Belvedere, Wien)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/belvedere-sites\/franz-xaver-messerschmidt\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3650\">Messerschmidt busts<\/a> make a mighty impression when you first see them. Unexpected. Intriguing. And 250+ years old. Which makes them ideal material for a dialogue with contemporary works that address similar themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Talking Heads exhibition features 12 of Messerschmidt&#8217;s character heads. In addition, curator Axel K\u00f6hne takes the same part of the body as a subject in art and presents around 60 related works by ten contemporary artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These modern works include photos, paintings, sculptures, video projections and even an alarming dark room (more on that below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have less expertise in this area than a hippo after a night out with his friends, but the results are quite startling and worth the few minutes it takes to get around Lower Belvedere&#8217;s Orangery gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The relationship to Messerschmidt&#8217;s busts is sometimes explicit. For example, Arnulf Rainer&#8217;s drawings on photos of the busts strike a suitably grotesque tone, while Mara Mattuschka&#8217;s paintings of the same seem to add a little more levity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other works are more standalone, such as Maria Lassnig&#8217;s self-portrait paintings or Tony Oursler&#8217;s imaginative video projections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s certainly a darkness to many of the pieces within the exhibition, particularly in the simple, but expressive, head paintings by Miriam Cahn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there&#8217;s Douglas Gordon&#8217;s <em>30 seconds test<\/em>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A single bulb lights up a small room, illuminating the text of a report by a French doctor on attempts to interact with the head of a guillotined criminal immediately after its severing. When the realisation hits (no spoilers), it&#8217;s an eerie feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dates, tickets &amp; tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Talking Heads exhibition runs from Friday, March 8 to Sunday, August 18, 2019. The Orangery is included in a ticket for Lower Belvedere (or with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/vienna-pass-review\/\">Vienna Pass<\/a>). See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sightseeing\/vienna-museums\/belvedere\/\">here<\/a> for more details on tickets and visitor information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get to Talking Heads<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Just follow the instructions for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/belvedere-sites\/lower-belvedere\/\">reaching Lower Belvedere<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: The Orangery, Lower Belvedere, Rennweg 6, 1030 Vienna | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.belvedere.at\/\">Website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1ksawXWFMVD9bljA48Gi7_VvWSfI\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we ignore Kimt&#8217;s The Kiss for the minute, a real treat of a trip to Vienna&#8217;s Belvedere is the collection of 18th-century busts by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. The Talking Heads exhibition juxtaposes his sculptures with contemporary works that share a &#8220;head&#8221; theme. It&#8217;s an eyebrow-raising experience. Messerschmidt and Talking Heads (A Messerschmidt bust and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belvedere-sites","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14417"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79715,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14417\/revisions\/79715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}