Insider’s Vienna Guide
Between ESC rehearsals and afterparties, Vienna is doing what it’s always done best: keeping its best art slightly hidden. From off-radar galleries to timeless classics, from art spaces to local artists – here’s what insiders are paying attention to.
Queer Museum Vienna is a relatively new, self‑organised art institution founded in early 2020 that takes up space for queer culture in the city. Rather than a dusty archive or a traditional museum with velvet ropes, it’s run by a collective that sees art as a tool for resistance, community and re‑imagining how we live together, outside of heteronormative frameworks and mainstream narratives.
Every now and then, we hand over the mic to you, our readers. Forget the ivory tower: you get to decide whether a work is brilliant … or, well, shitty. Read what our readers thought of the current exhibition in this week’s → culture newsletter.
LAST LITTLE HAVEN is Viennas first lesbian bar, or rather, a reconstruction of a fictional queer bar from the 1930s to the 1950s, which also serves as an exhibition space. With a beer in hand, you can browse through the world's largest collection of artifacts related to lesbian bar history, including original ashtrays from Mona's Bar in San Francisco from 1930. Behind the project is the core team of TERESA FISCHER, BETTINA WOESS, and MARIE ZAHIR, who spent around a year fine-tuning the implementation. The bar is located at Gumpendorferstraße 68 in the 6th district.
Old but gold: Gustave Courbet was the original art rebel — self-confident, unconventional, and not afraid to make people uncomfortable. His first solo exhibition in Austria is running at the LEOPOLD MUSEUM until 21 June.
We dragged Austrian punk legend SALO through it. → Watch here.
Anyone needing a break from glitter, sequins, and Eurovision chaos can disappear into the landscapes of 19th-century master Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. His exhibition at UNTERES BELVEDERE (until June 14) is a mini-vacation for your eyeballs.