VIENNA .- In response to the urgency of the climate crisis and the corresponding need for a radical change in the way we think and act, the City of Vienna has launched a new festival. The first Klima Biennale Wien, hosted by the KunstHausWien, will begin on 5 April and run until 14 July 14 2024. The festival will span one hundred days and offer an interdisciplinary, interactive, and international programme throughout the Austrian capital, providing a platform for finding common solutions to the climate crisis and launching new ideas for a sustainable future.

An international premiere: With the Klima Biennale Wien, program director Sithara Pathirana and artistic director Claudius Schulze will organise the world’s first international climate art festival. The diverse programme encourages local and global participation in a dialogue about future social developments. In a world where economic growth is often seen as the ultimate goal, the Klima Biennale challenges this paradigm with national and international contributions from the fields of contemporary art, design, architecture, and science. The festival aims to address crucial questions such as how to create a sustainable, climate-friendly future, how to collectively negotiate future challenges, and how to make abstract global problems more tangible.

Claudius Schulze and Sithara Pathirana said: “Climate change is real; our responsibility is to ensure a future worth living for all. Our goal for the Klima Biennale is to leverage the power of art and transdisciplinary exchange to develop systemic, holistic approaches that reconcile ecological balance with economy and prosperity.”

A city-wide climate festival: The Klima Biennale will take place across Vienna and encompass prestigious museums, exhibition spaces, and public and alternative spaces, with the KunstHausWien serving as the biennial’s contextual starting point and central hub. Sophie Haslinger will curate a group exhibition titled Into the Woods, which will explore the forest ecosystem.

The Biennale’s festival site will be located at the former Nordwestbahnhof railway station, which will be reimagined as a social utopia. The highlight there will be the group exhibition titled Songs for the Changing Seasons, curated by Lucia Pietroiusti (Head of Ecologies, Serpentine, London) and Filipa Ramos (lecturer at the Institute of Art, Gender and Nature, FHNW , Basel). The exhibition brings together an international group of artists who will reflect on how art can engage with the effects, consequences, and realities of environmental change between mourning and transformation in ways that will be both tangible and poetic.

With more than 20 different partner institutions participating with their own exhibitions, including the Fotoarsenal Wien, the MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, and the Weltmuseum, as well as contributions to be made in conjunction with Vienna Design Week and the Wiener Festwochen, the Klima Biennale will take over the entire urban space and present a vision of a society that balances ecological sustainability with economic growth and prosperity.

A detailed programme of events will be announced at a press conference in January 2024.

Gerlinde Riedl (director of the KunstHausWien): “We envision a climate Biennale that utilizes the power of art as a catalyst for change. With the Biennale headquartered at the KunstHausWien, the museum offers a platform to reflect together on the sustainable design of our planet. As the organisers, we are delighted to have the generous support of the City of Vienna and numerous partners from the art and cultural communities who share in our conviction of a brighter future worth striving for.”

Claudius Schulze (*1984) serves the Klima Biennale Wien as artistic director. He holds degrees om »Conflict Analysis & Resolution« (M.A., Sabanci University, Istanbul) and »Documentary Photography & Photojournalism« (M.A., University of the Arts London) and is pursuing a practice-led Ph.D. on machine cognition & sensing and the Anthropogenic Extinction Crisis.

As an artist and researcher, his interest lies in nature, technology, and the consequences of Global Change. In his studio, he collaborates with a diverse team of educators, engineers, and designers to create unique, site specific installations, bridging the analogue/digital divide. His work is regularly published and exhibited internationally. It is held by various private and public collections.

Most recently, he implemented »FIDS Open Research Lab« (Elbkulturfonds 2022, Hamburg Germany), an artistic research vessel logging the impact of noise and light pollution in the Port of Hamburg and the effect on bird behaviour using advanced image recognition and Artificial Intelligence.

Claudius initiated the first international biennial for nature, climate at the anthropogenic changes to the earth system in Hamburg. He served the first edition 2022, titled »ClimateArtFest« as the artistic director.

Sithara Pathirana (*1987) is responsible for the supporting program of the Klima Biennale Wien. She studied English and American Studies (Mag., Karl-Franzens University, Graz) and »Cultural and Media Management« (M.A., University of Music and Drama, Hamburg).

As a project and cultural manager, her focus is on cultural education and is primarily concerned with the topics of cultural participation and educational justice.

She was a consultant at the Hamburg Association for Children and Youth Culture. She previously worked as an art festival producer for the »Triennale der Photographie Hamburg«, the »steirischer herbst« and the »Hamburger Kulturgipfel«, among others