Image courtesy of Edward Clydesdale Thomson


Grazer Kunstverein is moving!

Grazer Kunstverein is conducting a feasibility study aimed at speculatively re-locating the institution. This performative public program unfolds alongside a continuous exhibition program, as a companion series of ephemeral events in test sites across the seventeen districts of the city of Graz. Conceived together with artist Edward Clydesdale Thomson in the context of Graz Kulturjahr 2020, this ongoing research project’s end goal is finding a new home for the institution.

The idea of moving presents us with an opportunity to rethink the role and function of the Kunstverein. What do we do and for whom do we do it? How would moving change or impact our current modes of production? What freedoms and challenges might we encounter with the simple gesture of leaving our four walls in the Innere Stadt? How might relocation enable us to actively question and critically reflect on the role of culture and the necessity of art in the city?

A central Depot at the Grazer Kunstverein acts as an information point, incubation hub, gathering place and evolving documentation space for all related activities, providing a permanent working site and touchstone for a kaleidoscope of exploratory events across the city throughout the year. On display will be the full cohort of functional artworks conceived and fabricated by Edward Clydesdale Thomson. Each sculptural object represents one district of the city of Graz, and acts as a way of anchoring each project to our permanent location in Palais Trauttmansdorff.

List of artists:
Edward Clydesdale Thomson, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Tai Shani, Anna Paul, Dennis McNulty, Alma Heikkilä, Fiona Hallinan, Emma Wolf-Haugh, Markus Jeschaunig and the Breathe Earth Collective, Fiston Mwanza Mujila with Patrick Dunst and Grilli Pollheimer AKA Bender Schulz, Bianca Baldi, Lukas Meßner, Damir Očko, Aimée Zito Lema and Becket MWN, Irina Gheorghe

2021 Documentation artists:
Bettina Landl, Christoph Szalay, The Schubidu Quartet

2021 Team:
Verena Borecky, Edward Clydesdale Thomson, Ahmad Darkhabani, Tanja Gurke, Kate Strain

Grazer Kunstverein is moving! is supported by Graz Kulturjahr 2020 with additional support from the Mondriaan Fund.