Mission of the 21er Haus

The 21er Haus is to be understood as a place of artistic production, reception, and reflection. The focus is on Austrian art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and its embedding in an international context. The Belvedere’s holdings, which will be given a permanent presence in a specially designated part of the building, will serve as a basis for research and exhibition activities. Relying on the Belvedere’s collection as a starting point, the programme, with its various formats, is meant to build a bridge between the museum’s modern architecture and contemporary art, thereby pursuing multidisciplinary and socially analytical approaches. Thematically focused temporary displays and corresponding monographic positions will concentrate on the numerous and ever more significant interrelationships among artists.

The museum’s core tasks of education, collecting, research, and conservation are considered integral parts of all exhibition projects and provide the foundation for the production and the positioning of Austrian art. The 21er Haus will make it possible for visitors to gain a comprehensive and profound overview of recent Austrian art history in all its diversity. It is the museum’s primary task to commit itself to the continuation of the international integration of Austrian art up to the present.

The cooperation with other institutions, as well as artist- and curator-in-residence programmes, will ensure a regular exchange of new insights in local and international developments. Our exhibition activities will be complemented by lectures, performances, screenings, and concerts in order to seek a lively dialogue with our audience. By offering various approaches and perspectives, the new museum’s goal is to encourage people to actively deal with art, thereby reviewing conventional art historical patterns of reception. It is a place of both art historical and artistic research – a place of discourse, dissent, and experiment in which society is questioned and rediscovered.