|
4 September 2026 Curated by 2026: Where Art Meets Clothing in Vienna
Quick Read
• LOVE is the theme of Vienna's 2026 gallery festival curated by. 24 galleries, one citywide art routeNow in its 17th edition, curated by brings together Vienna-based galleries and international curators for a programme that extends well beyond the traditional gallery visit. The festival opens from 11 to 13 September, before the main programme continues until 17 October. Its Festival HQ is at mumok, where the tours begin.The tours are particularly useful for visitors who want to see several exhibitions in context. Free public tours are led by students of Art History at the University of Vienna and organised by neighbourhood or region. There are also artist- and curator-led tours, as well as individual events. Registration is required for the public tours, and several opening-weekend tours are already marked as sold out – a reason to check the programme early. Clothes as art at Galerie KandlhoferFor a fashion-oriented reading of curated by, Galerie Kandlhofer is the clearest starting point. Clothes (Kleidung), curated by Anna Roberta Goetz and Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo (Puppies Puppies), treats clothing not simply as something worn, but as an intimate and social medium. Clothes touch and protect the body, conceal and reveal it, influence how people are perceived and can carry memories, identity, vulnerability and desire.The exhibition also moves beyond representation. Clothing Drive (for Trans, Queer, GNC and 2S+ people) turns donated clothing into a social sculpture and makes the garments freely available to members of the trans community. Venus of the Rags (Transitioned) reworks Michelangelo Pistoletto's Venus of the Rags with clothing no longer worn by the artist, connecting transformation with the idea of carrying the past into a new form. On 12 September at 14:00, Anna Roberta Goetz and Puppies Puppies meet at the gallery for a conversation about the exhibition. The website currently lists the meeting as an event rather than a registered tour. Kandlhofer also appears on several guided routes, including a 13 September artist/curator-led tour with Sonia Leimer and three public tours later in September and October. From the dressed body to the absent bodyOther exhibitions offer more indirect connections to fashion. At Sophie Tappeiner, Fugitive Love includes Roy Köhnke's PDA (Public Display of Affection) Jacket #3_+2TIME4U, a laser-engraved leather jacket displayed over a stair railing. Removed from the body, the jacket becomes a stand-in for someone who is no longer there. Its Perfecto form also carries associations with punk as well as queer and trans histories of appropriation.The exhibition's starting point is Sophie Calle's The Bronx, first presented at Fashion Moda in New York in 1980. That reference opens another route into the question of where contemporary art can happen – and who gets access to it. Fashion Moda was an experimental art space in the South Bronx, founded by Austrian-American artist Stefan Eins in 1978. Despite its name, it was not a fashion gallery. Fashion Moda was the shortened form of the multilingual name FASHION 時裝 MODA МОДА; the project crossed art, community, performance, technology and popular culture. Eins described it not as an "alternative space" but as an "international cultural concept", arguing that "quality achievement can happen anywhere." That idea provides an interesting final perspective on curated by: contemporary art is distributed across Vienna rather than concentrated in a single museum district, while free guided walks make the galleries easier to enter and connect. Clothing is only one thread in the programme – but, followed through the city, it reveals how closely art, identity, the body and everyday life can intersect. Image: Poster for curated by 2026, Vienna’s annual gallery festival themed LOVE, taking place from 15 September to 17 October 2026, opening weekend on 11–13 September. © 2026 curated by |