EIKON Schauraum.
Exhibition space for photography and new media
Q21 Backstage: With its own exhibition space, EIKON provides a unique opportunity beyond the printed medium to make art photography and media art accessible to the public. An extension of the magazine, the EIKON Schauraum becomes a presentation platform for Austrian and international art photographers and media artists, where art projects are developed on regular rotation—alongside the publication of the current issue of EIKON.
Adapted in 2020 according to plans by BWM Architekten, the EIKON Schauraum is open on Thursdays and Fridays from 2 to 6 p.m. and can also be viewed outside of opening hours from 10 am to 10 pm Admission is free.
Interview with Nela Eggenberger, artistic director EIKON Schauraum, editor-in-chief EIKON
What makes EIKON Schauraum special?
I would say the special thing about this place is its highly frequented location and the transparency. These properties give the room a permanent presence envied even by larger institutions. Ideal conditions, among other things, for promoting new artist generations and making them visible to the public. The EIKON Schauraum functions as a communicator of (young) photography and media art on site, at MuseumsQuartier Wien, where you can also find our editorial office, introducing this next generation to the world through EIKON magazine. This symbiosis between the showroom and the print magazine also reflects in the programme.
What exactly is new media, and why do new media require a platform?
The term ‘new media‘ is defined in many different ways. We at EIKON refer to new media which have emerged since the 1990s, since the foundation of EIKON, when the internet started to grow more and more, when people started using it to connect live all over the world, when artists started experimenting with new media. Especially now that the digital transformation has become omnipresent, that new phenomena such as NFT’s have emerged, we need to observe current developments in media art. Then as now, it is evident that it is often only through the critical analyses of artists that an awareness of what is currently happening to our society is created.
What audiences are you trying to reach?
Of course, we try to reach as many people as possible, people who are interested in photography and new media. In general, an international, gender-equal and cross-generational orientation is important to us.
What challenges are you facing currently?
After two years of a pandemic, we want to bring our community back from the digital bubble and to reconnect them to each other at our showroom.
Picturing Nature: A look at the SpallArt collection
Talk with Andra Spallart and Christoph Fuchs in the context of FOTO WIEN: Sat 12.03., 12h
The current access regulations apply.
On the occasion of FOTO WIEN, EIKON takes a look at the SpallArt collection and makes selected treasures, most of them safely stored in the depot, accessible to a larger audience. For the group exhibition„Picturing Nature“, works by contemporary artists such as Elfriede Mejchar and Edgar Lissel are juxtaposed with classics, including Karl Blossfeldt, and thus demonstrate the broad spectrum in which a photographic examination of the fragile as well as vital relationship between man and nature can take place.
With works by: Herbert Bayer, Karl Blossfeldt, Sanna Kannisto, Edgar Lissel, Elfriede Mejchar and others.
