What to expect during and beyond viennacontemporary: Q&A with Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt

From 24th to 27th Sep­tem­ber 2015, col­lec­tors, artists, cu­ra­tors, gallerists, art pro­fes­sion­als and art lovers from all over the world will once again gather in Vi­enna to explore an in­trigu­ing se­lec­tion of con­tem­po­rary art from Cen­tral and East­ern Eu­rope. Marx Halle is the new home to viennacontemporary where an ex­quis­ite set of gal­leries from Aus­tria and be­yond will show up­com­ing local and in­ter­na­tional artists. Com­ple­mented by other ex­hi­bi­tions and events at renowned con­tem­po­rary art in­sti­tu­tions in the city, the in­ter­na­tional art fair presents the best of Vi­enna´s flour­ish­ing art scene.

ArtRabbit caught up with artistic director Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt.

ArtRabbit What was the motivation behind this first edition of viennacontemporary? 


Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt Actually, the current team is organising its fourth fair; from 2012 till 2014 we successfully operated the event viennafair, under license of REED GmbH. But to keep developing the event on an international level we felt we needed fixed dates to be able to secure a spot in the already full international fair calendar. Reed Gmbh could not meet our demands and thus we decided to look for another venue. Our new venue, Marx Halle, offered us fixed dates for 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The viennafair brand, which is owned by Reed Messe GmbH, was not for sale so we continued under a new name. We agreed on the name viennacontemporary as it immediately describes the content and context. Of course it is the first edition of viennacontemporary but the organisation and the team brings much experience to the table and we have been working very hard to build on the strong evolution we made between 2012 and 2014 to make the 2015 edition of our fair a great success! Feedback on the changes from exhibitors and collectors is positive with 25 galleries who will participate for the first time and an increase of 20% in the number of international collectors coming to Vienna for the event.

AR How would you describe the Vienna art scene to someone who has never visited, what makes it particularly exciting?
CSP Due to the historical context and geographical central location of Vienna, the city has been a gateway between East and West for centuries - politically, economically and culturally. And with a long tradition of art patronage – during the Habsburg reign as well as in modern times and even today - Vienna has been attracting artists from all over Europe. In Vienna you can see and discover not only the Austrian art scene but also the many influences from neighbouring Eastern European countries. With its influential gallery scene and internationally renowned museums and institutions such as Albertina, mumok, Ludwig Museum, 21er Haus, Kunsthalle Wien and Belvedere, Vienna’s contemporary art scene has always something new and exciting to offer.

AR viennacontemporary is providing a complementary programme consisting of talks, screenings, guided tours, and a focus on Bulgaria. Can you talk a bit about the concept and who is involved in it?
CSP As from the beginning, we put much attention into the collateral programme of the fair because we feel it is important to offer a more in depth experience to our various target audiences. We want our guests to spend more time at the event and discover new things, find out more about art and interact with artists, curators and collectors. The talks programme, for example, is designed to give more insights into the contemporary art world of today, and reaches out to art professionals, art enthusiasts but also to people who like to know more about art in general. Also, our collectors talks – 20four7 – Collecting Contemporary – offers a view on the motives and ways international collectors buy art and build their collections. Other parts of the collateral programme, such as the guided tours and the family programme are aimed to art educate audiences who might not be that into contemporary art. We have special tours for students (studio) and senior citizens (gold). Each tour is guided by a young Austrian artist who participates in ZONE1. With our family programme we get our youngest guests involved who can learn various painting techniques with very colourful paintings as a result. A final section of the collateral programme are the special exhibition projects which support our focus on Eastern Europe. This year, we have a very interesting presentation, Focus Bulgaria, alongside an exhibition, Variofocus Artist, a talk in the series Keys to Contemporary Arts, and a series of daily artist talks inside the Focus Bulgaria booth.

AR Vienna’s autumn season is quite busy. Can you highlight a few projects or exhibitions not to miss during and beyond the fair?
CSP During the fair I would recommend the exhibitions in our partner institutions such as Kunsthalle Wien, Secession, TBA21–Augarten, as well as Parallel Vienna. As from the first week of October, I can highly recommend the new exhibitions at mumok and curated by _vienna where 20 international curators developed exhibitions in 20 leading contemporary art galleries around town. And if you would like to see something else than contemporary art, I would suggest Vienna Design Week or the Edvard Munch exhibition at Albertina which is opening on Thursday 24th September.

AR Thank you for your time!

Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt (born 1983 in Kazakhstan) was the sole artistic director in charge of VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary, and became the artistic director of viennacontemporary in December 2014.

vi­en­na­con­tem­po­rary
24 Sep 2015 – 27 Sep 2015
Marx Halle, Vienna

Follow viennacontemporary on Twitter @VCcontemporary