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.
With the opening of the MAK DESIGN LAB on 12 May 2014, the museum has undertaken a radical new positioning of the former MAK Study Collection, and the design concept of the LAB has been consciously chosen as a contrast to the MAK Permanent Collection. The MAK DESIGN LAB was reinstalled in context of the VIENNA BIENNALE FOR CHANGE 2019.
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.
With the opening of the MAK DESIGN LAB on 12 May 2014, the museum has undertaken a radical new positioning of the former MAK Study Collection, and the design concept of the LAB has been consciously chosen as a contrast to the MAK Permanent Collection. The MAK DESIGN LAB was reinstalled in context of the VIENNA BIENNALE FOR CHANGE 2019.
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.
TODAY'S PERMANT COLLECTION
Halls of the Permanent Collection 1993-2012/2013
The MAK Study Collection (1993-2013)
With the MAK’s renovation in 1986 and the associated development of new strategies for presenting the museum’s holdings, the MAK Permanent Collection-conceived to present the museum’s collection highlights in interplay with artistic interventions-was joined by the MAK Study Collection.In the Study Collection, the MAK showed a small cross-section of its extensive holdings according to a material and technology-specific form of organization to which the respective collection curators’ specializations correspond. In this area of the museum, the items on exhibit were also embedded within their typological, historical and/or functional contexts.
