The Life of Things. Looted – “Displaced“ – Salvaged

Showcasing contemporary works of art, the exhibition Das Leben der Dinge focuses on the fate of works of art and artefacts between looting, displacement, restitution, and reconstruction. Approaches informing the show range from the discussion of colonial looting and questionable collecting activities to state sanctioned theft and expropriation and cultural genocide through looting and the destruction of cultural objects.

 The exhibition’s focus is deliberately directed at the objects’ immaterial value and the memories and (hi)stories that have inscribed themselves upon them. As the creators of objects, artists are essentially linked to these objects and their networks of meaning and are uniquely sensitized to their (mis)representation. This is why art institutions are indebted to artists for imparting impulses to new strategies that enable them to deal responsibly with issues of restitution and the preservation of humanity’s cultural heritage.

With Said Baalbaki, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, CATPC / Renzo Martens, Ines Doujak, Assaf Hinden, Moussa Kone, Oliver Laric, Markus Proschek, Anja Ronacher, Dierk Schmidt, Philip Topolovac, and others.

Guided tours
Sat 27.4., 29.6., 27.7., 31.8.
each 17.00 - 18.00
Following the guided tours, we invite you to a reflective discussion in the new "Kaiserin Elisabeth" coffee house in the old Marktrichterhaus.
Max. Max. number of participants 25 people, no registration required, free admission and free guided tour

Curator guided tour
Sat 25.5. 17.00 - 18.00
Lentos director Hemma Schmutz and curator Markus Proschek give a guided tour of the exhibition.
Free admission and guided tour free of charge, no registration required

Bookable group tours
Duration 1 hour, max. 25 participants
Cost: € 180; please contact us at kunstvermittlung@lentos.at

The Journey of the Paintings

Three different art exhibitions of a special kind at three locations: During the Second World War, Hitler and the most important Austrian museums and art dealers used the Salzkammergut to bring masterpieces of European art history to safety or to protect museum collections from destruction.

More about the project at salzkammergut-2024.at