For hundreds of years, Vienna was a center of intellectual and artistic life. Now, the city that reinvented modernity is the vanguard again, further reinventing itself as a 21st century hub of contemporary design and earning the title of the art set’s newest capital. Upon the invitation of my dear friend, artist and curator Bogomir Doringer, I came to Vienna for the second time this year. This time, I was lucky to have stayed inside the Museums Quarter Wien, more commonly known as MQ.

Being one of the largest culture and art complexes in the world, MQ is a destination for culture seekers. You could spend an entire day diving into the vibrant sprawl of renowned museums, exhibitions halls and art spaces–which is exactly what I did.

The Imperial City Stables were constructed in the beginning of the 18th century, and later was adapted into trade fair and exhibition grounds. With its grand opening in 2001, the Museums Quarter is nearly 300 years in the making.

Today, there are baroque buildings and contemporary architecture. Cultural facilities in every shape and size represent a variety of art sectors that merge and coalesce to form a scintillatingly contrasting whole.

Melo admiring the Egon Schiele exhibit at the Leopold Museum

THE LEOPOLD MUSEUM

The Leopold Museum is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art. It is an impressive treasure trove of Viennese art nouveau, the Vienna Workshop, Classical Modernism and the Expressionist period. Here you can find art by Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl and the world’s largest collection of masterpieces by Egon Schiele.

It was the first time I found myself immersed in the work of Schiele, who is the protege of Gustav Klimt. I was bedazzled, bewitched and hypnotized by Schiele’s art, where sex is beautiful and the body poetic.

THE MUMOK

On the opposite corner building from The Leopold Museum is the MUMOK, which stands for the Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig. The MUMOK houses a collection of around 9,000 modern and contemporary pieces. These span through classic Modernism, Pop Art Fluxus and Viennese Actionism to present-day film and media art. Major pieces include works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, Claes Oldenburg, Franz West, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell and Gerhard Richter.

I had come to MUMOK at the right time. Europe’s biggest dance festival, the IMPULSRANZ (the Vienna International Dance Festival) had a performance by Peaches and Keith Henessy at the museum. Together with their 25 performers, all participants of their workshop, Peaches and Keith performed “Critical Joy.” Afterwards, they spread their weirdness, queerness and divisiveness to the rest of the world from the MQ main court!

Melo admires the AJNHAJTCLUB exhibit, which celebrated migrant workers in Vienna

THE AJNHAJTCLUB

At the Frei Raun Q21 exhibition space at MQ was an exhibition tackling an important contemporary issue: immigration. Bogomir curated the AJNHAJTCLUB, a celebration of migrant workers. These are the men and women who came from Yugoslavia (now Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia, and Herzegovina) to work in Austria, half a century ago.

The collection of paintings at the Kunsthistorisches Museum

KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM

A few steps from the MQ is the Kunsthistorisches Museum or the Museum of Art History. Walking up the stairs of this impressive palace is like walking in a dream. This museum, which opened in 1891, is considered one of the five most significant fine art museums in the world. Here, there are collections of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, alongside sculptural works and pieces of decorative art.

THE SECESSION BUILDING

Not far from the Museum of Art History is The Secession Building. It was erected in 1897 by Joseph Maria Olbrich as an architectural manifesto of the Vienna Scession group. It was designed to underline their break with conservative exhibition space Künstlerhaus.

Created in 1902, the Art Nouveau building is one of Vienna’s most compelling constructions. It is home to Klimt’s 32 meter-long Beethoven Frieze, which depicts Beethoven’s 9th symphony and can be viewed on the basement floor. The final section of the painting–the embracing lovers surrounded by angels–is also known as This Kiss to the Whole World. I couldn’t help but dream that one day I will host a dinner in that basement, surrounded by Klimt’s greatness.

The crowds congregating around Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss in the Leopold Museum

THE BELVEDERE MUSEUM

It was at the Belvedere Museum where my eyes were treated to a feast of Klimt’s portraits and landscapes. It is here where you can find what’s probably his most recognized piece: The Kiss. Some art historians have theorized that the lovers seen lip-locked in The Kiss are none other than the painter himself and his long-time partner, fashion designer Emilie Flöge, who he had previously depicted in a portrait. 

Visitors to the Belvedere Palace during this time were in for another treat. We have been confronted with 1,005 refugees’ life jackets drifting in the the baroque pond at the palace gardens, courtesy of Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. The installation, entitled F. Lotus, consists of 201 rings each holding five life jackets retrieved from the Greek island of Lesbos. They are arranged in the letter F and float like lotus flowers. He said the work was his way of addressing the tragedy of Europe’s migrant crisis. The Ai Weiwei exhibition is entitled Translocation-Transformation. It extended from the Belvedere Museum to the 21erhaus, Museum of Contemporary Art.

My Austrian friend Alex once thanked me for promoting Vienna as a destination for free thinkers and free-spirited travelers. I never thought that I was promoting Vienna at all. All I did was chronicle the adventures that inspired my soul. And always, after every visit to Vienna, my heart and soul is always full.

Originally published in Zee Lifestyle, Dec-Jan 2017