The City Hall hosted a presentation on the Viennese Art Salon in Trieste (Salotto.Vienna) on 19 August 2014.

The former fish market Salone degli Incanti will be transformed into space for encounters between cultural creators from Vienna and Trieste, exchange of experience and artistic pleasures until 14 September, 2014.
At the invitation of the city of Trieste, the Viennese Art Salon (Salotto.Vienna) has been opened in the Italian city on 1 August 2014. It presents an artistic summer under the direction of MAK – the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, which transposes the atmosphere of the Belle Époque, an era of leisure, carefree life of artists, and transfers it to the beginning of the third millennium. Visitors are invited in the evenings and late hours at night to walk through exhibitions and installations, experience performances, enter into discussions, dance to diverse music, and watch Austrian short modern film. Dialogue, delight in conversation and mutual exchange is in the forefront.

The cities of Vienna and Trieste are united by a long history as well as culture and architecture. Although the relationship has not been without its problems, the city of Trieste is convinced that ongoing cultural and economic exchange offers an opportunity to strengthen positive connections in the heart of Europe. “It is of great significance for the city of Trieste to once again focus on contemporary art. After all, innovation, research, and experimentation constitute the foundation not only of cultural but also of economic development,” says the Mayor of Trieste, Roberto Cosolini. “I felt it was ideal when the MAK was brought on board for this project. It realizes high-quality interdisciplinary artistic projects, and we believe in the idea of reviving our good practice and relations with Vienna on the basis of such projects. We wanted to set a positive boundaries and directives that look to the future and does not only serve as a reminder of past tragedies in a year when we commemorate the centenary of such a tragic event as the beginning of the First World War,” explains Cosolini.

The MAK assumed the artistic direction of this project with Director Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, who shared a few words at the opening: “The Viennese Art Salon in Trieste provides an excellent opportunity to portray Vienna from a new perspective as a contemporary and creative city. As an internationally renowned museum, the MAK appears to be the right choice to execute and promote exchanges between cultural workers and artists from various disciplines and both countries. The former fish market in Trieste’s harbour, which is often being used for artistic projects, provides an impressive stage to present the diversity and the creative potential of Vienna’s cultural and art scene.”

By using a salon design of Viennese modernism, the Viennese Art Salon in Trieste is a variation of an inspiring connection between traditional and contemporary, which is one of the core objectives of the MAK. As the salons in Vienna around 1900, such as that of Berta Zuckerkandl, the Viennese Art Salon in Trieste provides a platform for interesting encounters between personalities from various branches of the arts.
Jürgen Weishäupl, the producer, curator and team manager at artproject, is also an esteemed expert on Vienna’s cultural scene. He is delighted by the interest from Viennese cultural workers to work in and with the city of Trieste. Weishäupl believes the reason lies in the profound cultural connections between the two cities. “Instead of showing the original artworks, we were determined to invite the protagonists from various Vienna’s cultural scenes themselves and bring Vienna’s contemporary vibrancy to Trieste through the actual presence and mediation of the artists through their work. We worked in a team and the architecture firm, managed by the initiator of the art salon, Giovanni Damiani, to develop the arrangement of the art salon. The focus is on the salon atmosphere, in which people meet, exchange ideas and opinions, and where artists, performers, and the leaders of cultural and economic institutions present their creative work and open it up to discussion. Art needs to regain its unification, and personal conversations must once again be brought to the forefront” claims Weishäupl.

The following is a selection of the participating Viennese institutions, museums and galleries: 21erHaus, SR-Archiv österreichischer Popularmusik, ART for ART, Charim Galerie, eSeL.at, go-international – eine Initiative von WKO und bmwfw, Galerie Emanuel Layr, Galerie Krinzinger, Galerie Steinek, GRELLE FORELLE, Haus der Musik, ImPulsTanz, Kunsthalle Wien, Kunst Haus Wien – Museum Hundertwasser, KÖR – Kunst im Öffentlichen Raum Wien, Leopold Museum, mediaOpera, Metroverlag, mica – music austria, MQ – MuseumsQuartier, ORF RadioKulturhaus & Ö1, Österreichische Bundesgärten, Parabol Art Magazine, ROTER TEPPICH für junge Kunst, Skylifter, sound:frame, TQW – Tanzquartier Wien, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Verein Kunst & Welt, Wien Modern, Wien Products, Wiener Stadthalle, and Wiener Wohnen.