21 March 2021

'Wanderlust' exhibition at the Schallaburg in Lower Austria provides a holistic view on the exploration of the world with examples of positive and negative impacts of traveling (20 March - 7 November 2021)

'Wanderlust - Exploring New Worlds' (Sehnsucht Ferne - Aufbruch in neue Welten) is the title of this year's exhibition from 20 March until 7 November at Schallaburg in Lower Austria. The 'Wanderlust' show was developed from a holistic view on exploring the world and traveling to faraway countries guided by positive and negative terms related to expeditions or adventure journeys like research, plunder, discover, conquer, preserve, collect, buy,... From this holistic view, the curators throw lights on the history and technologies of seafarers with artefacts such as the compass from the 16th century on view on this page or critical views on the negative impact of humans' mobility on nature with examples like the extinct flightless bird 'Dodo' which lived once on the island of Mauritius, or on positive outcomes such as travel literature. Among the objects, travel utensils by explorer, writer Alexandra David Neel who presumably was the first European woman to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa in Tibet.

"What was collected, brought back and part of our culture over time?" is another guiding question of the exhibition makers. Who knows where the chess game comes from, the pajamas, the shampoo, the chewing gum,...?

The Wanderlust show is made for the whole family. For explorers of the exhibition, Schallaburg provides a rucksack with utensils which help solving some riddles.

Image, right: At schallaburg.at, an introduction into the exhibtion 'Sehnsucht Ferne - Aufbruch in neue Welten' is published with closer information about the compass from Italy, 16th century with general history of the technology of the magnetic needle tool and further inventions. Photo: © Dubrovački muzeji (Dubrovnik Museums), Maritime Museum.

Image, below: Insight into one of the exhibtion rooms of 'Sehnsucht Ferne - Aufbruch in neue Welten' at Schallaburg in Lower Austria (20 March - 7 November 2021) with the reconstruction of the Dodo, an extinct flightless bird from Mauritius (collection of the natural history museum 'Naturhistorisches Museum' in Vienna, © NHM Wien). Photo: © Klaus Pichler.