Vienna Biennale For Change 2019: BRAVE NEW VIRTUES. Shaping Our Digital World

We are living in a new era, which is changing our lives fundamentally: will we surrender to this Digital Modernity with no ifs, ands, or buts, or will we make use of the magnificent possibilities of digital technologies to keep developing as human beings? Human superspecialization seems obsolete as intelligent machines are becoming increasingly better at it. We now have the chance to rediscover ourselves as human beings and to use our most valuable qualities to shape the future. This will not happen automatically, we will need to change our lives. Which values will we need for a (digital) future we really want? A future in which the utopia of social and economic justice and ecological sustainability can become reality?

“We dared to approach a sensitive topic with our search for new values for a digital world. The result is a Vienna Biennale For Change 2019 inspiring in manifold ways with reflexive and provoking but also feasible approaches. Within the artistic realm of the Biennale, an eco-social Digital Modernity begins to take shape,” Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, General Director of the MAK as well as initiator and head of the VIENNA BIENNALE states. 

Artists, designers, and architects from all continents will take a stance towards the future we really want. With nine exhibitions, one comprehensive conference, and numerous projects and events the Vienna Biennale For Change 2019: BRAVE NEW VIRTUES. Shaping Our Digital World will focus on brave visions on handling artificial intelligence and new technologies, on shaping innovative lifestyles, (urban) working models, and on responsible consumption.

The Vienna Biennale is organized by MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Kunsthalle Wien, Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna Business Agency, Slovak Design Center as associate partner, and AIT Austrian Institute of Technology as research partner.

Curators of the Vienna Biennale For Change 2019:
Erwin K. Bauer (Designer, buero bauer), Janina Falkner (New Concepts for Learning, MAK), Anne Faucheret (Curator, Kunsthalle Wien), Paul Feigelfeld (Media Theorist), mischer’traxler studio (Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler, Designers), Vanessa Joan Müller (Curator, Kunsthalle Wien), Nicole Stoecklmayr (Scenes of Architecture), and Marlies Wirth (Curator Digital Culture and MAK Design Collection)

Exhibitions and projects Vienna Biennale For Change 2019​
UNCANNY VALUES. Artificial Intelligence & You
An exhibition of the MAK

MAK DESIGN LAB
A project of the MAK in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research

CLIMATE CHANGE! From Mass Consumption to a Sustainable Quality Society
A cooperation between the MAK and the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism

SPACE AND EXPERIENCE. Architecture for Better Living
An exhibition of the MAK in cooperation with Wienerberger

FUTURE FACTORY. Rethinking Urban Production
A project of the Vienna Business Agency in collaboration with the MAK and in cooperation with the Ottakringer Brewery

HYSTERICAL MINING
An exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien

CHANGE WAS OUR ONLY CHANCE
An exhibition of the University of Applied Arts Vienna

City of Temperaments
A project by designers Johanna Pichlbauer and Mia Meusburger in collaboration with Wien 3420 and the MAK

Human by Design. Probing Social and Methodological Innovation in Design
An exhibition of the Slovak Design Center

Changing Values
A conference of the MAK and the Slovak Design Center together with the Architekturzentrum Wien and Kunsthalle Wien in the context of the program INTERREG V-A Slovakia–Austria

KEY SPONSOR:
ERSTE GROUP

Cooperation Partners and Project Sponsors:
Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research
Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism

Main sponsor of the exhibition SPACE AND EXPERIENCE. Architecture for Better Living:
Wienerberger AG

Digital Content Partner:
Magenta Telekom

Media Partner:
Kurier

Sponsors:
Wien Holding GmbH
Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft m.b.H. (BIG)

The collaboration between the Slovak Design Center and the MAK and its partner institutions is co-financed with funds from the EU program Interreg V-A Slovakia–Austria (project “Design & Innovation”).