New start after five years: New show in the Liechtenstein Palais
They are “encounters” that represent a reunion, as it were: The Vienna Garden Palace of the Liechtenstein family invites visitors to an exhibition again for a few weeks from this Monday. Art lovers still mourn the regular museum operations in the castle, which were discontinued at the end of 2011 – some of which are now returning. “It’s a small new beginning,” emphasized Johann Kräftner, director of the Princely Collections, to journalists.
Annual special exhibition
Specifically, there will be a special exhibition from March 1st to 31st from next year, which can be viewed by interested parties with free admission and, if desired, without prior registration and a guided tour. The start in March 2022 will be a show in the women’s apartments on the ground floor, which will be dedicated to Prince Joseph Wenzel von Liechtenstein on the 250th anniversary of his death. According to the current status, the princely bronzes will be honored in 2023, according to Kräftner. In any case, it is not just a matter of presenting a collection, as large loans are also used. The princely family’s financial commitment is correspondingly high, as the director emphasizes: “This is a philanthropic project.”
Current show only until the beginning of November
First of all, the exhibition “Encounters”, which is accessible for a fee, shortens the waiting time when mythology, landscape and portrait go hand in hand. The occasion is the 100th anniversary of the private bank of the Princely House LGT. Here & friends of painting hurry up, the show can only be seen until November 1st – but it’s worth the hurry.
In addition to the remarkable presentation of around 50 works in the three ladies’ apartments, the collection in the galleries above has also been redesigned and continues to exude the flair of a private collection rather than a museum. In the galleries, there was no analogous labeling of the works of art, “because I am of the opinion that it is not worthy of a princely gallery to put labels on these things,” says Kräftner.
New museum app with augmented reality
To do this, you have to switch to the virtual space, where the Princely Collection is advancing in new dimensions. As a cooperation partner of the ETH in Zurich, you are an early adopter of the Artifact app. This freely accessible app for Android and Apple provides basic information, with the long-term goal being to make the majority of the collection accessible here.
The real qualities were revealed by the artifact at the exhibitions on the ground floor. Here the possibilities go far beyond basic information, spoken contributions or background material. So the app, which will be launched on the market in 2022, offers a whole marvel of augmented reality gadgets. For example, the visitor Maria de Tassis can put on different clothes in Anthony van Dyk’s portrait, zoom in on a mountain path in Joos de Momper’s “Gebirgslandschaft” (three-fronted house), which is later dismantled in the center of Vienna. An encounter with the future.
THE INFORMATION: “Encounters” in Liechtenstein Garden Palace, Vienna 9, Fürstengasse 1, from October 11th to November 1st.