VADUZ.- Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein brings the vibrancy and poetry of the street into its exhibition spaces. The exhibition On the Street spotlights how artists since the 1960s have explored public space, questioning and appropriating it and opening up new spaces of meaning. With performative and situational works, it also invites visitors to experience the public space around the museum in a new way.

The white cube: between history and alternative concept

The history of modernism is intimately linked to the ‘neutral’ space of art: the ‘white cube’. Especially since the 1960s, however, artists have been consciously breaking away from this concept. Abandoning the protected institutional setting, they take to the street as a site for radical and poetic actions or as a source of inspiration for their work. Redrawing the boundaries of art, this stance has also redefined the relationship between private and public space. The exhibition takes a closer look at these diverse relationships, between art, public space, museum practice and life.

Streets as living places of interaction

Streets are more than just places of transit. They are scenes of everyday public life, where people stroll, play, come into contact with others, work, sell goods or protest. Often though, we only notice them in passing. On the Street invites visitors to rediscover these spaces, as places of encounter, interaction and community, but also as sites of protest, where people share their feelings and where social circumstances, such as life on the street, become visible. How does public space influence our thinking, actions and being – and how do we actively shape it through our presence?

Four themed spaces, from archaic moments to social agendas

In the four skylit galleries of the Kunstmuseum, the exhibition unfolds a panoply of artistic perspectives. Each room begins with artworks by pioneers of the 1960s.

Room I: Gleaning: Collecting, gathering and leaving traces as a poetic reflection of existential activities in public space.

Room II: Walking: The street becomes a stage, walking an artistic strategy and metaphor of human existence.

Room III: Maintenance: Care and upkeep as invisible but essential activities in public space. Room IV: Protest and Living on the Street: The street as a place of resistance, emotions, migration, survival and social transformation.

The exhibition invites visitors to wander like flâneurs, observing and reflecting.

Exhibiting artists

Majd Abdel Hamid, Francis Alÿs, Ovidiu Anton, Joseph Beuys, Stanley Brouwn, André Cadere, Lottie Child, Damiano Curschellas and Wim De Pauw, Guy Debord, Sari Dienes, Tomislav Gotovac, Liesbet Hermans, Anna Jermolaewa, Corita Kent, Jiří Kovanda, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Klara Lidén, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Martina Morger, Rivane Neuenschwander, Adrian Piper, Pope.L, Lotty Rosenfeld, Salon Liz (Anna Hilti / Stefanie Thöny / Anita Zumbühl), Agnès Varda, Steina and Woody Vasulka.

Reader

The exhibition is accompanied by a reader containing a DIN A2 poster with a full-page image and text (in German and English) for each artist. Edited by Christiane Meyer Stoll, graphic design by Annett Höland, published by the museum 2025, ISBN: 978-3-906790-54-1 (German/English), price: CHF 29, available at the museum shop.

A production of Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, curated by Christiane Meyer-Stoll.