VIENNA.- In 2026, the MAK offers the kind of thematic spectrum that is only possible for a museum with its breadth of collections. The fulminant opening in December of the exhibition HELMUT LANG. SÉANCE DE TRAVAIL 1986–2005 / Excerpts from the MAK Helmut Lang Archive attracted enormous public acclaim and global media attention and will be followed by the long-planned new presentation of two Permanent Collections: VIENNA 1900—Everyday. A Total Work of Art conceived by artist Markus Schinwald and TEXTILES AND CARPETS structured by design studio Formafantasma. Starting in May, the MAK commemorates artist Christoph Schlingensief—whose relevance even after his premature death in 2010 remains unchanged—with his first comprehensive solo exhibition in Austria; and June marks the opening of the brilliant exhibition cooperation GLANZSTÜCKE: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection. Among the highlights of 2026 is the major exhibition BEFORE DARK: Viennese Interior Design in the Interwar Period, on whose staging the MAK worked for two years together with renowned set designer Anna Viebrock.

With this programmatic spectrum, the MAK builds upon the steadfast fortification efforts of the previous years, through which the museum has evolved into an open and welcoming destination for the public—a successful strategy that now is reflected in the notable increase in the number of visitors.

Significant growth in the number of visitors

MAK General Director Lilli Hollein: “In 2025, we welcomed 185,210 visitors to the MAK Vienna and registered a very gratifying 16% increase in the number of visitors. A total of 201,169 visitors attended all MAK sites, including its branches in Brtnice and Los Angeles—just over 15% more than in the previous year. 55,760 visitors attended the exhibition PECHE POP, one of the best-attended exhibitions in recent MAK history. Our HELMUT LANG exhibition also was a runaway success, with an opening on 9 December that caused the walls to pulsate and triggered a media response that resonated across the globe all the way to Wallpaper, Vogue America, Business of Fashion, and Harper’s Bazaar Brasil. Successes like last year’s are made possible thanks to a dedicated team, partners who believe in and support us on many levels, as well as artists and art creators, who feel connected to us. I am exceptionally pleased that Hito Steyerl entrusted us with her solo exhibition in 2025 and sparked a discourse with such an important contemporary artist and thinker. We are convinced of the power and the possibilities of art and design, and of the MAK’s ability to provide a unique, incomparable space and fertile ground for it.”

In conjunction with the increase in the overall number of visitors, the amount of paying customers also grew by 6% and interest from Bundesmuseen Card holders quadrupled (up 356%). With its 2025 exhibition SIDEKICKS: Rings and Bags from the MAK Collection and i.a. the event series Zeit für Kost [A Season to Savor] continuing to serve up culinary and art delectation in collaboration with Popchop, the MAK Geymüllerschlössel too saw a rise in popularity with a 33% increase in visitors. The MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles again achieved marked growth with 13,783 visitors, a 14% increase.

Open, networked, and cooperative

The (young)MAK was given many opportunities for joint decision-making, whether for a pool-less pool party in the MAK Garden, legal consultations, an HPV vaccination campaign, an accessories swap at the Geymüllerschlössel, or two sold-out (y)MAK parties in the Columned Main Hall.

In addition to participating in numerous international exhibitions with important loan objects, on 15.10., on the occasion of the exhibition Vally Wieselthier. Sculpting Modernism, the MAK hosted an international event at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York for the International Friends of the MAK. On the MAK’s initiative, the unmistakable and fascinating designs of Felice Rix-Ueno (1893–1967)—one of the most remarkable artists of the Wiener Werkstätte— were represented at the Expo 2025 in Osaka.

A cooperation of lasting visibility was launched with Austrian Airlines: Amenity Kits for Business Class proliferate the exceptional designs of Wiener Werkstätte artists across the world. In 2026, this cooperation will be expanded with Amenity Kits for Premium Economy Class to mark the occasion of AUA’s 70th anniversary. During the Johann Strauss bicentenary year, the Vienna Tourist Board, together with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the European Space Agency (ESA) broadcast the Blue Danube Waltz into the cosmos. We were delighted that the MAK was the setting for recording the ballet choreography accompanying the ORF New Year’s Concert, which was viewed 50 million times world-wide on TV screens in 150 countries. The MAK used the occasion to host a public screening of the New Year’s Concert in the Columned Main Hall, thus enabling a memorable experience of this production.

Its partnership with Wiener Städtische and Porsche made it possible for the MAK to offer free admission days, thereby granting visitors a cost-free museum adventure.

Lilli Hollein: “Since its founding, the MAK has been an active museum, a place of rapport with eclectic actors in art and society. Cooperations play an essential role for me personally and for this museum. Major festivals in this city, international museums, special communities—we have again formed fantastic alliances for 2026! A brilliant cooperation is the basis for a spectacular 2026 exhibition project, wherein some of the MAK’s most important and rarely shown collection objects are placed in relation to their analogue ‘Glanzstücke’ out of the patrimonial Collection from High Jewelry Maison Van Cleef & Arpels.”

Research and digitalization

Intensive research is the MAK’s foundation. Research projects undertaken in 2025—among them the further workup of the MAK Helmut Lang Archive in advance of the exhibition; intensive research activities on the occasion of the relaunches of the Vienna 1900 and the Textiles and Carpets Permanent Collections; and also the interdisciplinary AbeX EU project, started in January 2025—deserve a mention, with the latter giving the MAK the opportunity to shine a spotlight on artists’ books. A didactic focus is planned with i.a. a Summer and Winter School for art students from Austria, Romania, and Serbia. The exhibition TURNING PAGES: Artists’ Books of the Present (until 22.3.2026) is already providing insight into the diversity of the medium of books.

The expansion of the MAK Collection Online continued apace in 2025: More than 293,000 datasets are accessible online, ca. 250,000 of these include images (more than 85% pictorial content). The number of three-dimensional digitized collection objects was increased to about 400 models. A pivotal new feature is a download function for images, which by the end of the year has already been used 56,000 times since its implementation in October. The update of its objects in the Kulturpool database in 2025 once again made the MAK one of the largest data providers, with about 247,000 digital reproductions boosting the enduring visibility of its cultural heritage.

MAK exhibition program 2026

Toward the end of February, the doors open onto the redesigned MAK Permanent Collection VIENNA 1900—Everyday. A Total Work of Art (from 25.2.2026), with atmospheric experiential spaces to showcase the objects— considered to be among the most important internationally—from this famous chapter of art history. Contemporary artist Markus Schinwald developed the new concept in close collaboration with MAK General Director Lilli Hollein and the curators of the MAK Collection. Teaming up with Markus Schinwald represents the next step in the MAK’s internationally acclaimed practice of partnering with artists on its permanent collections. This practice also will be applied to the new presentation of the MAK Permanent Collection Textiles and

Carpets (from 25.3.2026). The internationally renowned design studio Formafantasma from Milan was commissioned with its staging and presentation. Whereas the previous presentation focused solely on the prestigious carpets collection, now these are put into context with other textile highlights from all areas of the collection. With this broader curatorial concept, the diversity and opulence of this part of the MAK Collection is finally being given its due.

In the first half of the year, the MAK presents two outstanding contemporary artistic positions with the exhibitions CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! (a joint project of the MAK, the Vienna Festival [Wiener Festwochen] | Free Republic of Vienna, and Gropius Bau / Berliner Festspiele; MAK Exhibition Hall [upper floor], 13.5.–13.9.2026), Christoph Schlingensief’s first comprehensive solo exhibition in Austria, and THOMAS DEMAND: Rooms That Dream of the Past (MAK Contemporary, 27.5.2026–24.1.2027), wherein the illustrative power of theater and opera is fused with the visual arts.

The mixed media installation Soft Image, Brittle Grounds (MAK Gallery, 11.2.– 26.7.2026), commissioned by the MAK and funded by the BMWKMS, with which artist, designer, and filmmaker Felix Lenz represented Austria in 2025 at the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition, is the MAK’s contribution to the Klima Biennale Wien this year.

During the summer months, the MAK will show the glittering joint exhibition GLANZSTÜCKE: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection (MAK Exhibition Hall [ground floor], 10.6.–27.9.2026), which brings together unique and rarely seen objects from all areas of the MAK Collection with jewelry artistry from the 120-year history of the High Jewelry Maison founded on Paris’ Place Vendôme in 1906. This project is the result of a vibrant exchange between Van Cleef & Arpels and the MAK, brought together by a shared passion and appreciation for exceptional design and peerless craftsmanship.

As in years past, the MAK continues to highlight women in pivotal positions in their field: URSI FÜRTLER: Textile—Abstract (MAK Forum, 18.3.–14.6.2026), marks the first time the MAK has dedicated a solo exhibition to award-winning Austrian textile artist Ursi Fürtler (* 1939). Austrian photojournalist and photographic artist Barbara Pflaum is recognized with the exhibition Showcases of Everyday Life presenting her sensitive images of civilian life in Vienna (MAK Works on Paper Room, 15.4.–16.8.2026). With VALLY WIESELTHIER: Ceramic Sculptor (Central Room MAK Design Lab, 29.4.2026–10.1.2027), the MAK provides a comprehensive view into Viennese ceramist Vally Wieselthier’s (1895–1945) career in Europe and in the United States. Borderland (a cooperation with Münze Österreich and viennacontemporary; MAK Forum, 16.9.–18.10.2026) presents works from artist Kateryna Lysovenko—originally from Kyiv, now residing in Austria—who understands painting as a social action and a political medium.

The program is enriched through the cooperatively developed exhibitions HYPE AND HIGH CULTURE: 75 Years of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) in Posters (a joint project of the Vienna Festival [Wiener Festwochen] | Free Republic of Vienna, and the MAK; MAK Poster Forum, 21.4.–20.9.2026); 20 Years of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK: A City Full of Posters (in cooperation with VIENNA DESIGN WEEK; MAK Poster Forum, 29.9.– 1.11.2026); a cooperation with WIEN MODERN (MAK Forum, 28.10.–29.11.2026); and, already for the 21st time, in cooperation with the MAK and the association 100 Beste Plakate e. V., 100 BEST POSTERS 25: Germany Austria Switzerland (MAK Poster Forum, 11.11.2026–4.4.2027), the exhibition of the most innovative minds in graphic design.

Pursuant to the successful 2024 joint exhibition PROTEST/ARCHITECTURE, the MAK this year is once again collaborating with the DAM – Deutsches Architekturmuseum to bring the exhibition ARCHITECTURAL CONSTRUCTION KITS 1890–1990: Plenty to Play With! (MAK Works on Paper Room and DIREKTION FÜR ALLE!, 7.10.2026–14.3.2027), shown at the DAM in 2025, to Vienna.

The second major exhibition in the MAK Exhibition Hall, which per tradition opens in December, BEFORE DARK: Viennese Interior Design in the Interwar Period (MAK Exhibition Hall [ground floor], 16.12.2026–2.5.2027) thematizes the sociocultural challenge of designing living spaces between the two World Wars. Known for creating memorable spaces to steer our gaze to the past and recall the unfinished into the present, renowned set designer Anna Viebrock was commissioned with staging this “domicile experiment.”

MAK Branches

Entitled THE WELL-DRESSED TABLE (9.5.–1.11.2026), the annual summer exhibition at the MAK Geymüllerschlössel, the MAK branch in the Pötzleinsdorf suburb of Vienna, is dedicated to multifaceted aspects of dining culture.

At the Josef Hoffmann Museum, Brtnice, a joint branch of the MAK and the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the permanent exhibition A MESSENGER OF BEAUTY provides insight into Hoffman’s oeuvre.

The current temporary exhibition JOSEF HOFFMANN AND THE POLDI PHENOMENON (until 6.4.2026) is devoted to the Poldihaus in Kladno (Czech Republic), which was designed by Josef-Hoffmann and built in 1903 as a guesthouse for visitors to Karl Wittgenstein’s “Poldi-Hütte” steelworks.

The MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles further strengthens its position as a hotspot for the exploration of contemporary art and architecture.

The exhibition NANCY HOLT: Light and Shadow Poetics (Schindler House, 25.2.–25.5.2026) makes it possible to experience how art and architecture together shape perception. VISUAL INVESTIGATIONS: Between Advocacy, Journalism, and Law (Schindler House, 18.6.–13.9.2026) probes the increasing significance and explosiveness of visual material. SOCIAL HOUSING VIENNA—LOS ANGELES (Schindler House, 22.10.2026–17.1.2027) uses case studies to examine how architecture and housing intersect.

New works by MAK Schindler fellows Leni Hoffmann, Veronika Spierenburg, and Zara Pfeifer (Mackey Apartments and Garage Top, 5.–8.3.2026) and Alexandra Kahl, Sarah Silbernagel, and Simon Lässig (10.–13.9.2026) will be presented in two FINAL PROJECTS exhibitions.