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6 September 2026 Fashion Meets Contemporary Art at PARALLEL Vienna
Quick Read
• PARALLEL Vienna 2026: September 9–13 at the Otto Wagner Areal in Vienna. A Vienna art fixture with a changing addressPARALLEL Vienna was founded in 2013 with an idea that remains central to the fair: contemporary art does not necessarily need conventional gallery spaces. Instead, the event turns unusual or vacant buildings into temporary exhibition environments. Held every September, it has developed into a recurring point in Vienna's art calendar while remaining deliberately nomadic.For 2026, PARALLEL returns to the Otto Wagner Areal, Baumgartner Höhe 1, 1140 Vienna, for the fourth time. The fair runs from Wednesday, September 9, to Sunday, September 13. More than 130 exhibitors are expected, including galleries from eight countries, independent projects and institutions. What is new at PARALLEL 2026?There is no single theme defining this year's edition. Instead, the programme again combines different exhibition formats and approaches. Among the new elements is a dedicated Editions & Photography section, including an OstLicht photography auction. Photography also has a symbolic anniversary this year: 2026 marks 200 years of photography.Another focus is PARALLEL KITCHEN, a special exhibition devoted to Eat Art and conceived as a tribute to Daniel Spoerri. Performances, live acts and a programme combining art with food and music further reinforce PARALLEL's hybrid character. Fashion appears where art becomes wearableFashion is not the main subject of PARALLEL Vienna, but a short Fashion.at preview found an interesting point of intersection in the contribution by Les Nouveaux Riches (LNR).Founded in Vienna in 2019, LNR describes itself as a platform for contemporary art and culture. Its activities extend beyond publishing to exhibitions, curated projects and different forms of artistic production. For PARALLEL 2026, LNR issued an open call at the beginning of June, running from June 3 to June 30. The call explicitly approached fashion from a conceptual and semiological perspective, looking at aesthetics, objects, performativity, sculptural presence, fashion history and archival practice. Photography, video, sculpture and clothing were prioritised. Ten names announced ahead of the fairLNR has given on Instagram a preview of the selected participants in its Fashion and Art presentation:• Luna-Isola Bersanetti • Marija Delić • Kristina Deska Nikolić • Daniel Ferstl • Trees Heil • Johannes Hartmann • Emmélie Lempert • Vivianne Pärli • Beatriz Gomes de Pinho • Iris Writze The LNR project can be found in Pavilion 13, Room 13/109. The open call had already stated that selected artists and designers would be featured in the PARALLEL VIENNA 2026 edition of the magazine, extending the project beyond the physical exhibition. PARALLEL Vienna offers considerably more than this one fashion-related project, from established galleries and institutions to young artists, performances and special exhibitions. But for visitors interested in the increasingly fluid boundary between fashion and contemporary art, the LNR presentation is a particularly useful point of entry: here, clothing is treated not simply as something to wear, but as an object, image, material and cultural sign. Image: Evening view of PARALLEL Vienna at the Otto Wagner Areal, with visitors gathered outdoors in front of the illuminated historic building. © Claudio Farkasch |