MAK 2017 ANNUAL REVIEW Contents Preface of the Board of Directors .................................................................................... 3 MAK Exhibitions 2017 ....................................................................................................................... 4 VIENNA BIENNALE 2017: Robots. Work. Our Future ................................... 12 MAK Events 2017 ................................................................................................................................. 17 MAK Collection / Acquisitions / Donations 2017 ....................................... 18 MAK Research Projects 2017 ............................................................................................... 20 EU Projects 2017 ................................................................................................................................. 22 Publications 2017 ............................................................................................................................ 22 MAK Branches ......................................................................................................................................... 23 MAK Branch Geymüllerschlössel MAK Tower Josef Hoffmann Museum, Brtnice MAK Center, Los Angeles Art Education 2017 ......................................................................................................................... 28 Marketing 2017 ...................................................................................................................................... 29 MAK Press and Public Relations 2017 ...................................................................... 30 MAK Facts 2017 ................................................................................................................................... 32 MAK Sponsors ......................................................................................................................................... 33 MAK Exhibitions 2018 / Preview ...................................................................................... 34 MAK Staff 2017 ....................................................................................................................................... 38 MAK BOARDS .............................................................................................................................................. 39 Cover/Backcover Thomas Bayrle, iPhone meets Japan , 2017; Walk-in installation in the MAK Columned Main Hall after Nishikawa Sukenobu (preliminary study from ca. 1720); Digital print on plastic; Courtesy of the artist © MAK/Georg Mayer Imprint Editors: Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, General Director, MAK; Teresa Mitterlehner-Marchesani, Managing Director, MAK Editing: Judith Anna Schwarz-Jungmann (Head, MAK Press and Public Relations, Sponsoring), Sandra Hell-Ghignone Translations: Jennifer Blaak (DE>EN), Eva Dewes (EN>DE) Copy Editing: Bettina R. Algieri (Head), Cornelia Malli Graphic Design: Maria Anna Friedl © MAK 2018 Preface of the Board of Directors Fascinatingly applied, sustainably visionary Christoph Thun-Hohenstein , General Director and Artistic Director Teresa Mitterlehner-Marchesani , Managing Director © Sabine Hauswirth/MAK 2017 was a prime example of the inspiring If It’s Too Long–Make It Longer flooded the MAK of branches which provide the MAK’s program diversity of the MAK, one of the world’s most with a narrative for interaction between com - with always new perspectives. important museums of applied art. As a reser - munications design and society. The artist’s voir of the past, a platform for the present, pointed interpretation of social interconnec - In order to be able to ensure the continuation and a lab for the future the MAK relates design, tions enriched the MAK’s critical view on our of its high-profile program and to at least mod - architecture, and the contemporary fine arts future. erately expand its collection, the MAK decided to each other and to our lives. After the open - to carry out certain measures which, among ing of the collection exhibitions THE GLASS OF In 2017 the MAK placed a new emphasis on the other things, include a slight increase in the THE ARCHITECTS: Vienna 1900–1937 and way it communicates its content with the MAK traditionally rather moderate admission prices GLASSES FROM THE EMPIRE AND BIEDERMEIER FUTURE LAB, which will continue to provide in - and the replacement of free admission on PERIOD: From the MAK Collection and the Glass terdisciplinary perspectives on the humane Tuesday evenings with a reduced admission Collection of Christian Kuhn which were greet - use of Digital Modernity in 2018. As a conclu - price starting in 2018. At the same time the ed with enthusiasm by visitors at the begin - sion to the 2017 program and as an entry into prices for annual tickets were made more ning of the year, the second VIENNA BIENNALE, the year 2018 the anniversary exhibition attractive. initiated by the MAK, sparked intense dis - AESTHETICS OF CHANGE: 150 Years of the course on the topic of possible digital realities. University of Applied Arts Vienna submerges In 2018 we would like to once again make as As was the case at the premiere in 2015, the itself into the cosmos of one of Austria’s most many people as possible interested in applied MAK once again joined forces with the Univer - visionary cultural universities with the deepest arts. In this big year of anniversaries of great sity of Applied Art Vienna, the Kunsthalle Wien, tradition. Thousands of biographies from art, artists which is also simultaneously the the Architekturzentrum Wien, and the Vienna architecture, and design are connected to this European Year of Cultural Heritage the MAK’s Business Agency as well as the AIT Austrian institution. program concentrates on the outstanding role Institute of Technology as non-university re - of the MAK as a competence center of Vien - search partner. Under the title Robots. Work. In total 20 exhibitions were opened in the MAK nese Modernism. The exhibitions POS- OTTO Our Future , multi-disciplinary projects directed and its branches—Geymüllerschlössel, Josef WAGNER: From the Postal Savings Bank to attention to issue of how we humans can get Hoffmann Museum in Brtnice, and MAK Center Post-Modernism and KOLOMAN MOSER: Uni - the most out of the digital revolution. The for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles—in versal Artist between Gustav Klimt and Josef question of how to achieve a humane digital 2017. The visitors honored the program with Hoffmann and the virtual reality experiment future interests and concerns people, as could the second highest number of visitors in the KLIMT’S MAGIC GARDEN honor three of the gi - be seen in the strikingly high amount of public museum’s history. ants of the era around 1900 in Vienna. How interest and media response. much art and design can be found in everyday Also in terms of finances the MAK can look life can be seen, among others, in the exhibi - A creative contribution to a better, common back at 2017 as a successful year. It was pos - tions SAGMEISTER & WALSH: Beauty and 300 future is a central concern for the MAK. As one sible to increase the financial security, the YEARS OF THE VIENNA PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY . of the first institutions world-wide the MAK targets in the areas of donations, sponsoring, puts the role of art, design, and architecture and funding were clearly surpassed. Thanks In the MAK applied always means a direct as a central force in the shaping of new living to a one-time increase in the basic remuner - relationship with life. In 2018, we want to environments against the background of dig - ation a feasibility study could be carried in articulate the vision behind fascinating and italization up for discussion. How much vision regard to the possible renovation of the multi-faceted applied arts even more clearly, the freedom of art allows could be experienced Villa Beer for its use as an exhibition space for and we want to inspire our visitors and part - in one of the largest solo exhibitions from a the MAK. This single family home in the 13th ners in accordance with our mission statement contemporary artist presented by the MAK in district of Vienna, designed by Josef Frank, “vision applied”! a long time: the MAK exhibition THOMAS BAYRLE: would be a congenial fit for the MAK’s network 3 MAK Exhibitions 2017 Exhibition View, 2016 In the front: Les Compagnons du Devoir, Tour Eiffel [Eiffel Tower], 2015 © MAK/Georg Mayer MAK Exhibition Hall The MAK exhibition handiCRAFT: Traditional handiCRAFT 14 December 2016 – 9 April 2017 Skills in the Digital Age invited visitors to reflect Guest Curator: Tina Zickler on the significance and status of handicraft Traditional Skills in Curator: Rainald Franz, Curator, MAK Glass as an integral component of material culture and Ceramics Collection and cultural identity. In six sections, this com - the Digital Age prehensive MAK exhibition encompassed handicraft from historical times to current Eu - ropean perspectives, examined how handi - crafts can help preserve natural resources, explored interfaces to digital technologies, and presented masterpieces from a range of craft disciplines. Publication: handiCRAFT: Traditional Skills in the Digital Age, edited by Christoph Thun- Hohenstein, Rainald Franz, and Tina Zickler. With contributions and interviews, amongst others with Richard Sennett, German/ English, 208 pages with numerous color illustrations, MAK/Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna 2016. Available