Dom Museum Wien reopens

Vienna’s Dom Museum Wien will reopen on October 7, 2017, following several years of closure, in a major relaunch, redesign, and with brand new architecture.

The portrait of Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria (1339–65), one of Austria’s most important historic treasures, and largely considered the oldest portrait of the western world, was transferred to Dom Museum Wien over the summer. As of October 7, 2017, when the museum reopens after several years of construction, the portrait will once more be accessible to the public. The 650 year-old painting depicts the Hapsburg ruler, who founded the University of Vienna, and initiated the Gothic expansion of St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Dom Museum Wien (formerly Cathedral Museum of Vienna, an entity of the Archdiocese of Vienna) was closed in 2013, and will reopen in a major relaunch, redesign, and with brand new architecture under the guidance of director Johanna Schwanberg. The collections housed in the museum adjacent to Vienna’s landmark building, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, include the cathedral’s treasures, highlights of classic modernity (Klimt, Kubin, Chagall) and the postwar avant-garde contained in the Otto Mauer Collection (Lassnig, Beuys, Rainer), as well as contemporary art (Kandl, Michailov, Rosenberger, Zogmayer).

Redesign and new architecture
The contemporary redesign of the historic building featuring spectacular views of St. Stephen’s Cathedral allows for an exciting juxtaposition of old and new. Internationally renowned architect Boris Podrecca’s design carefully integrates with the 19th century building’s historic structure. The museum now features state-of-the-art security, lighting and climate control systems, as well as adaptable exhibition spaces. Articulated as a spatial sculpture, a light-gray steel staircase with a round glass elevator leads up to a glass bridge that provides access to the exhibitions spaces.

Old & new
Besides the permanent exhibition, which presents the most important objects from the Cathedral and the Archdiocese, museum director Johanna Schwanberg has decided to focus increasingly on the juxtaposition of old and new: work by contemporary artists is presented directly adjacent to historic objects. Special exhibitions on social, cross-cultural, and interfaith themes will help establish the museum as an open platform for all cultures and religion, as well as a forum for issues which few other museums can tackle in this way.

Special exhibition
The inaugural exhibition titled Images in Language and the Language of Images (October 7, 2017–August 26, 2018) deals with the relationship between the art of words and the art of pictures and the very thin line between the realm of the visual and the realm of language. Objects spanning a thousand years of art history shed light on word–image forms, on books, liturgical objects, drawings, series, photographs, videos, and sculptures for which script and particularly combinations of script and picture are constitutive. The presentation includes exhibits from the museum’s own historical holdings and the Otto Mauer Collection but also presents precious loans from museums, galleries, and private collections in Austria and abroad.

Artists include William Blake, Alighiero Boetti, Günter Brus, Jácques Callot, VALIE EXPORT, Sister Corita Kent, Shirin Neshat, Raymond Pettibon, Kamen Stoyanov, Oswald Tschirtner, Micha Ullman, Timm Ulrichs, and many others, as well as medieval manuscripts and objects dating back to the 11th century.

Combined tickets with St. Stephen’s Cathedral and Mozarthaus Vienna & smartphone app
The museum offers combined tickets with its neighbors, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and Mozarthaus Vienna, the latter being Mozart’s only preserved Viennese apartment where he composed more music than anywhere else. A Museum app, which is available to download free of charge for Apple and Android, offers in-depth information on the collections and exhibitions in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish, as well as exclusive audio, video, and images for select exhibitions and the brand new museum architecture.
 

Media contact:
Kerstin Schuetz-Mueller
T +43 1 51552 3300 / ksm@dommuseum.at