Publication
Collection
The MAK Permanent Collection
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The spacious halls oof the Permanent Collection were redesigned by contemporary artists in order to present selected highlights from the MAK Collection. In a unique interplay of artistic heritage and contemporary interventions, the historical holdings have been staged in a way that invites close examination of the individual exhibits.
The MAK’s renovation in 1986 went hand in hand with the development of new strategies for presenting the museum’s extensive collection. The project of redoing the permanent collection made it possible to present preservation-worthy items in an incomparable and exemplary interplay between artistic heritage and contemporary interventions by artists and designer including Barbara Bloom, Michael Embacher, Franz Graf, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Tadashi Kawamata and Füsun Onur.
The various spaces of the Permanent Collection were organized in a chronological fashion, with the individual collection items arranged to produce congenial ensembles of outstanding works rather than a dense, serial presentation. The participating artists, whose interventions were developed via a process of intense collaboration with the MAK’s respective collection heads, arrived at highly diverse approaches and solutions.
With the directorship of Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, the Permanent Collection is to embark on a process of continual change, building on the established concept of contemporary transformation by artists working in the present. As a first step, the Wiener Werkstätte, Art Nouveau Art Deco and 20th/21st Century Architecture sections were closed in mid-July 2012; these reopened on 18 September 2013 as a permanent presentation of VIENNA 1900. Design / Arts and Crafts 1890–1938. After the reinstallation the Permanent Collection ASIA. China - Japan - Korea opened on 19 February 2014 and the Permanent Collection Carpets on 9 April 2014.
In contrast to the previous approach, these spaces will be reconceived as a dynamic display collection in which each periodic re-design of individual areas is to be accompanied by rotation of the objects on exhibit.
The MAK’s renovation in 1986 went hand in hand with the development of new strategies for presenting the museum’s extensive collection. The project of redoing the permanent collection made it possible to present preservation-worthy items in an incomparable and exemplary interplay between artistic heritage and contemporary interventions by artists and designer including Barbara Bloom, Michael Embacher, Franz Graf, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Tadashi Kawamata and Füsun Onur.
The various spaces of the Permanent Collection were organized in a chronological fashion, with the individual collection items arranged to produce congenial ensembles of outstanding works rather than a dense, serial presentation. The participating artists, whose interventions were developed via a process of intense collaboration with the MAK’s respective collection heads, arrived at highly diverse approaches and solutions.
With the directorship of Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, the Permanent Collection is to embark on a process of continual change, building on the established concept of contemporary transformation by artists working in the present. As a first step, the Wiener Werkstätte, Art Nouveau Art Deco and 20th/21st Century Architecture sections were closed in mid-July 2012; these reopened on 18 September 2013 as a permanent presentation of VIENNA 1900. Design / Arts and Crafts 1890–1938. After the reinstallation the Permanent Collection ASIA. China - Japan - Korea opened on 19 February 2014 and the Permanent Collection Carpets on 9 April 2014.
In contrast to the previous approach, these spaces will be reconceived as a dynamic display collection in which each periodic re-design of individual areas is to be accompanied by rotation of the objects on exhibit.
