Kunsthaus Graz

The Kunsthaus Graz opened its doors in 2003, the architectural pièce de résistance of Graz’s year as European Capital of Culture. The biomorphous building designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier—known locally as the Friendly Alien—has since become an attraction for art lovers and the culturally minded from all over the world. But it has also become an essential landmark in the urban identity of the city of Graz.

As an exhibition centre for contemporary art, the Kunsthaus exhibits Austrian and international art from 1960 onwards. Its BIX media façade—designed by Berlin designers realities:united—constitutes a unique fusion of architecture and media technology. Effectively a large screen in the middle of the city, it acts as an instrument of art communication.

The residency at Kunsthaus Graz takes place from 11 to 20 April. We have invited the artists Maja Kolar and Maša Poljanec from Zagreb to work on utopian scenarios on the future of museums. In close cooperation with young people, they shape a model for what contemporary art museums can become that will then be shown in a travelling exhibition in 2017. The exhibition will open in Graz in September 2017 and will be accompagnied by a catalogue introducing the overall concept of the project and all related activities.

Maja Kolar and Maša Poljanec are co-founders of Oaza Collective in Zagreb and independent design professionals. Working transdiciplinary through various design-led research projects and collaborations, their practice is best characterized as thematic investigation resulting in realms of service, commercial and critical product. Often involved in collaborative processes her work tends to develop different design methodologies using innovative and contextual approach as well as system-oriented principles. Engaged in both self-initiated and commisioned projects, she operates within the fields of Product design, Visual communications and Graphic Design, Interior Architecture and Spatial Interventions, Research Design, Social Design, Service Design, Exhibition and Set Design, Project Management, Design Strategies, Creative Direction and Concept, Research Perspectives, Critical Thinking and Writing, and Design Education.

Find out more about Oaza on their official website: http://www.o-a-z-a.com/en.

During the artists’ residency, Kunsthaus Graz will be visited by

Triin Tulgiste, Deputy Director from KUMU in Tallinn
Łukasz Zaremba, Curator from Muzeum Sztuki in Łodz

The aim is to bring together 3 institutions plus artists in one moment and to thereby create an ideal situation to exchange experiences between the partner museums and getting inputs and sustainable inspiration.

The aim of the youth group knowledge pool is to bring together young adults with different backgrounds and pre-knowledge and form groups of young “experts” in each museum:
If you could dream up a museum, how would it be?

Kunsthaus Graz has disseminated a Call in February/March 2016 to attract young adults to participate in the project. We are now happy to work together with 20 local youngsters that will be actively involved in our museum activities at a local context and share their experience and feedback with the other groups in our partner museums.

Together, we reflect about the future of a museum of contemporary art, investigate how contemporary art museums can be more relevant to their daily lives and explore possibilities and paths of communication. How can museums become interactive toolboxes which go beyond the aura of the object to make the location a socially relevant space for young people in which themes are explored? How should museums present information to young people and through which channels?