VIENNA.- In 2023, the Belvedere celebrated its 300th anniversary under the motto "Golden Spring," with an extensive program dedicated not only to its rich history but also to the tasks and challenges of the future. Consequently, the 2024 program will address topics such as diversity and inclusion, political crises and identity formation, ecology and sustainability, digital cultures and transformations.

General Director Stella Rollig: We are emerging from our anniversary year reinvigorated and ready for the next phase. Our program encourages meaningful encounters with art, enabling us to reach a broad audience and effectively communicate the social relevance of museums in a variety of contexts. In our vision, the museum of tomorrow is progressive and diverse, fosters learning through the arts. A museum that matters.

Extraordinary festivals, programs, and exhibition highlights such as the contemporary sculpture project Public Matters, Klimt. Inspired by Van Gogh, Rodin, Matisse... and a major Louise Bourgeois show attracted a record number of around 1.8 million visitors to all three museums – the Upper Belvedere, Lower Belvedere, and Belvedere 21. We are delighted to have welcomed even more visitors during our anniversary year than before the pandemic, says Wolfgang Bergmann, the Belvedere’s Chief Financial Officer.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS 2024

In February, the LOWER BELVEDERE opens In the Eye of the Storm. Modernism in Ukraine.

The exhibition is the first outside Ukraine to illustrate how international and avant-garde the modernist art movements in cultural centers such as Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv were. Following this exhibition, the renowned German graphic artist, painter, and photomontage artist Hannah Höch (1889 - 1978) will be honored with her first retrospective in Austria, which was done in cooperation with the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern. In the fall of 2024, the Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo will present his first museum exhibition in Europe. With Broncia Koller-Pinell. An Artist and Her Network, the Belvedere will dedicate an exhibition to the painter’s most important works, while also highlighting Koller-Pinell’s network and her efforts to promote the arts. The Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, a contemporary of Klimt and a member of the Vienna Secession, will be the subject of the first in-depth presentation of the artist’s work in cooperation with the Ateneum Art Museum Helsinki.

On the occasion of the 300th birthday of Franz Anton Maulbertsch, the UPPER BELVEDERE will dedicate an IN-SIGHT exhibition to his work. As part of the CARLONE CONTEMPORARY series, the Belvedere will present Dara Birnbaum’s installation Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B-dur to mark the Bruckner Year 2024. The American artist traces the politics of Austrian music history.

Solo exhibitions by Oliver Ressler, Angelika Loderer, Tamuna Sirbiladze, Kazuko Miyamoto, and the British artist Monster Chetwynd will present highly acclaimed contemporary positions at the BELVEDERE 21. Starting in 2024, the Belvedere 21 will organize and develop the CIVA media art festival. Another exhibition highlight will be Walter Pichler meets Friedrich Kiesler, in which two avant-garde artists from different generations and disciplines will engage in a hypothetical dialogue in the main space of the Belvedere 21.

The exhibition program will be accompanied by numerous publications, events, workshops, and projects in the fields of education, inclusion, mediation and research.

PIONEERING CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

In October 2023, a remarkable construction project was launched in the heart of Salzburg’s UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Salzburg Museum, in collaboration with the Belvedere, is expanding the Neue Residenz site and building a new art gallery named “Belvedere Salzburg” below the second inner courtyard. The result is a collaboration between two museums on one site that is unique in Austria.

Also in October 2023, the Belvedere launched an international architectural competition aimed at creating the infrastructure needed to operate a contemporary 21st century museum. As a significant step towards the sustainable development of the Baroque landmark and a forward-thinking museum, an "invisible" VISITOR CENTER will be constructed in front of the Upper Belvedere.