23 January 2024

Austrian Folk Life and Folk Art Museum (Volkskundemuseum) invites to bring objects for the traveling exhibition 'Recycle Bin' by Iranian artist Maryam Kouhestani

2024 marks a turning point for the Volkskundemuseum, the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in the Schönborn Garden Palace in Vienna. Due to the renovation of the building, which will begin in the autumn of 2024, the permanent exhibition will be packed up and transported to the Depot Hafen Freudenau. Until the renovation is completed in 2026, the museum will continue to use the space for exhibitions, as Fashion.at was informed by telephone today. From 2024 until the start of the renovation, the museum will present a programme in the empty rooms where the permanent exhibition was installed, which will be thematically political - as announced in the museum's brochure with reference to the election year in Austria - from a post-migrant perspective, it will be about the unreasonable demands of the capitalist working world, about the Anthropocene and the new ecology associated with it, and about the struggles against climate change.

One of the exhibitions in the 2024 programme is 'Recycle Bin - Episode 5: Erinnerungsobjekte auf Weltreise' by Iranian artist Maryam Kouhestani. Recycle Bin is about memorabilia on a trip around the world. It's the fifth stop, after Tehran (twice), Paris and Helsinki, where the artist presented the collection of over 100 objects encased in glass. Like messages in a bottle, each object carries a story of its owner. The exhibition series began with the artist's own objects from her home, representing her life. Maryam Kouhestani was in a critical state of health at that time. The stories behind the objects were meant to be memories for her friends. Meanwhile, and thanks to the positive development of the artist's life circumstances, the concept has been expanded and the bottled objects & stories offer glimpses into the memories, thoughts and emotions of people from all over the world. More objects and stories will be added throughout the duration of the exhibition, continuing the growth of the project through a global exchange method. The process of exchange is intended to continue indefinitely, potentially bringing back participants' objects after a transformative journey. Recycle Bin opens tomorrow, January 24, and runs through February 4. On selected days (see https://www.volkskundemuseum.at/recycle_bin for details), visitors are invited to bring objects that fit into a bottle with a handwritten story. The object can be exchanged for another from the exhibition. The exchange will take place after the exhibition on February 4. Participants will receive a code to track the journey of their objects.

Recycle Bin's next stop, most likely Sweden, is already in preparation.

Image: View of the exhibition 'Recycle Bin' by Iranian artist Maryam Kouhestani in Vienna at the Volkskundemuseum, on view from January 24 to February 4, 2024. Photo: Kollektiv Fischka / Stefanie Freynschlag © Volkskundemuseum Wien.