With the Climate Biennale, Vienna will have its first climate art festival from April 5th to July 14th, 2024 for over 100 days. Today the interactive program was presented by the artistic director as part of the press conference in the Climate Lab Vienna. Low thresholds are very important to the initiators, which is why there will be a pay-as-you-can model.
Hard facts about the Climate Biennale
At the Climate Biennale, art, design, architecture and science will address the social challenges of the climate crisis. Visitors can expect a diverse program – a combination of exhibitions, installations, readings, performances, concerts and discourse formats. The festival, initiated by the City of Vienna and numerous partners, will take place throughout Vienna, with the newly renovated Kunst Haus Wien becoming the biennale headquarters, while the Nordwestbahnhof will be converted into the festival area. This is one of the few events in which city councilors from three departments contribute financially – this does not happen often and can be interpreted as a sign of “urgency”. The costs for the festival are shared equally by the Finance, Culture and Climate Department of the City of Vienna. Financial support also comes from companies, sponsors and grants. The total project volume should amount to 1.5 million euros.
“The environment and the climate concern us all. We have to start a process and rethink a lot of things. Solutions to the climate problem must be developed by our generation – we must not leave the young alone with this,” said Peter Hanke, City Councilor for Finance, opening the press conference.
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The program: An exclamation of climate modernity
The project and cultural manager Sithara Pathirana and the artist and researcher Claudius Schulze are responsible for the program design and management of the Climate Biennale. For both of them, the focus is on creating a sustainable, livable future and the social effects of climate change. “The Climate Biennale is about the big picture and we are part of the solution,” Schulze quotes Helga Kromp-Kolb. The aim of the biennale is to create a broad debate with different discourse formats. The management duo promises that the opening week will take place from April 4th to 14th, including a concentrated series of events.
The festival program includes, for example, an exhibition on climate justice in the Brunnenpassage, a climate film program in the Stadtkino and Admiralkino and an activism camp with workshops. The report “Earth for all” is to be adapted to Austria as a survival guide for our planet and presented by the “Club of Rome”. Another exhibition will deal with climate emotionality and address the questions “How does the climate crisis feel and what does it do to us emotionally?” place. At the Nordwestbahnhof festival area, the former post bus garages are to become an urban utopia as ‘climate commons’. They want to reuse saved plants from the converted northwest station area. In the climate canteen, the focus will be on sustainable nutrition and the “Best Practice overview exhibition” will deal with green and circular design in Austria. The group exhibition “Into the Woods”, curated by Sophie Haslinger, will be about the forest ecosystem and shed light on the relationship between humans and nature.
from left: Kurt Gollowitzer, Jürgen Czernohorszky, Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Gerlinde Riedl, Claudius Schulze, Sithara Pathirana and Peter Hanke © David Bohmann
“Position the Climate Biennale as a creative ideas center across Europe”
The Kunst Haus Wien is intended to be the starting point for the Kima Biennale and a community meeting point. Director Gerlinde Riedl reveals that the Climate Biennale will be the first project in the newly renovated museum. “With the Climate Biennale we want to position ourselves across Europe as a creative ideas center, supported by motivation, inspiration and perspectives.” For Climate Councilor Czernohorsky, the central point of the Climate Biennale is this: “We want to create a city that can claim to be a good place to live, and not just for those who can afford it anyway.”
That’s why visitors will be able to decide for themselves how much entry to the Climate Biennale is worth to them. The low-threshold “pay-as-you-can” entry model should be used to purchase a Biennale Festival pass. The partners charge regular admission prices.
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