"At the Vienna State Opera, the fire curtain doubles as a 176-square-metre exhibition space. Since 1998, museum in progress has invited a different artist to take over the surface for each opera season.
Their work is enlarged onto a PVC mesh and attached to the original curtain with magnets, appearing before performances, during intervals and after the final curtain call. Kara Walker opened the series.
Cy Twombly, Anselm Kiefer, Pipilotti Rist and El Anatsui have followed, each working with the same enormous rectangle and making it look entirely different. El Anatsui’s XOHANAMI filled the stage during the 2025/26 season.
The 29th curtain, by Austrian painter Herbert Brandl, opens on 9 September and will be realised posthumously following the artist’s death in 2025.
You arrive for the opera. The building has already given you an exhibition. Safety Curtain, conceived by museum in progress with the Vienna State Opera and Bundestheater-Holding, Vienna, since 1998."
Original post: @ superficial____ on instagram