{"id":33962,"date":"2021-06-04T06:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T05:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=33962"},"modified":"2025-08-28T07:30:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T06:30:28","slug":"alfredo-jaar-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/alfredo-jaar-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfredo Jaar exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/jaarsmall.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/jaarsmall.jpg\" alt=\"Roof of social housing\" class=\"wp-image-33963\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/jaarsmall.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/jaarsmall-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Art, history and economic theory collide in this photo exhibition and broader installation by Alfredo Jaar at the MAK museum. Discover the surprising wonders of early 20th-century social housing in Vienna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Custom installation featuring a long series of photos<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Explores Vienna&#8217;s famous municipal housing projects built 1919-1934<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Runs Jun 9 &#8211; Sept 5, 2021<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All info in English and German<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/mak\/\">MAK visitor &amp; tickets info<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/exhibitions\/#photography\">Photo exhibitions<\/a> in Vienna<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Red Vienna<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Jaar_Photo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Jaar_Photo.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33965\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Jaar_Photo.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Jaar_Photo-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Alfredo Jaar Untitled (1988\u20132004); Photo series on Red Vienna; \u00a9 Alfredo Jaar)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vienna enjoys global fame for various aspects of the city&#8217;s history and culture. Mozart, for example. Or Sachertorte. Or Gustav Klimt&#8217;s <em>The Kiss<\/em> painting. Or social housing projects from the early 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That last one might surprise you, but the years between WWI and the 1934 fascist uprising saw Vienna&#8217;s socialist government create a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/culture\/social-housing\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"35479\">municipal housing programme<\/a> that still serves as a model for exemplary urban development today. The period became known as Rotes Wien (Red Vienna).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To cut a long story short, the authorities levied a special housing tax and used these and other funds to build apartment complexes throughout the entire city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These projects offered the post-WWI crisis-hit population decent accommodation for a reasonable rent (and without fear of exploitation by greedy landlords).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Above and beyond that, the aim was also to provide housing with green spaces and other communal resources such as an on-site Kindergarten or bathing facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throw in a bit of architectural innovation and you end up with numerous remarkable building complexes that built a foundation for the high quality of living that Vienna still enjoys today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alfredo Jaar&#8217;s photos<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The era and housing programme have long interested the New York-based artist, architect and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar and form the subject of an exhibition featuring a series of his photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jaar captured his impressions of Red Vienna on camera across over 15 years of visits; in the exhibition, you see some of the more iconic building imagery associated with the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jaar also created the custom spatial installation into which the photos are integrated. For example: bright red neon tubes that spell out the words RED VIENNA on closer examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The works serve as both documentation and art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Documentation in the sense of capturing the physical reality, and also highlighting the potential lessons of an implemented quasi-utopian and communal view of urban development for today&#8217;s more capitalist and individualist society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Art in the sense of Jaar&#8217;s interpretation of buildings through the camera, and his use of intensified colour saturation to produce a fresh take on these long-established motifs of urban photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The almost complete absence of people seems to give the images (paradoxically) both a historical and almost post-apocalyptical feel. This, in turn, seems to accentuate the distance between the past and the capitalist present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having said that, Red Vienna still remains a colloquialism for the city today, given the left-wing social democrats have held the position of mayor since the end of WWII.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vienna continues to support and build social housing in the spirit of those early 20th-century pioneers: quality living spaces for an affordable rent. Currently, well over half the Viennese population lives in city-owned housing or housing run by communal organisations (such as housing cooperatives).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dates, tickets &amp; tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy the photos of Red Vienna from June 9th to September 5th, 2021 with any entrance ticket to the MAK museum or a suitable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/city-passes\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"30352\">city visitor pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vienna has a few other photo exhibitions running across much of summer 2021. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Albertina Modern presents works by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/araki-exhibition\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"31737\">Nobuyoshi Araki<\/a> (until August 29th, 2021)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Albertina main house has artist portraits by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/franz-hubmann-photo-exhibition\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"33981\">Franz Hubmann<\/a> (until October 17th, 2021)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Jewish Museum highlights the work of WWII photographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/yevgeny-khaldei-exhibition\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"32703\">Yevgeny Khaldei<\/a> (until November 1st, 2021)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Kunst Haus Wien has an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/elfie-semotan-exhibition\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"31485\">Elfie Semotan retrospective<\/a> (until August 29th, 2021)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get to Red Vienna<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>See the main <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/mak\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"7100\">MAK museum<\/a> article for travel tips. Once inside, go upstairs to the <em>Vienna 1900<\/em> section to find Jaar&#8217;s photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>P.S. The 1930 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/culture\/karl-marx-hof\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"39713\">Karl Marx Hof<\/a> probably counts as Vienna&#8217;s most famous social housing project. If you want to get a look in real life, take the U4 subway line out to Heiligenstadt and the complex is opposite the main entrance to the station at Heiligenst\u00e4dter Str. 82-92 in the 19th district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1G1JqCaIFJT9xk7v01SX4IL93otIsKj2D\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Art, history and economic theory collide in this photo exhibition and broader installation by Alfredo Jaar at the MAK museum. Discover the surprising wonders of early 20th-century social housing in Vienna. Red Vienna (Alfredo Jaar Untitled (1988\u20132004); Photo series on Red Vienna; \u00a9 Alfredo Jaar) Vienna enjoys global fame for various aspects of the city&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33963,"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":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-museums","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33962","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=33962"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85433,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33962\/revisions\/85433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}