7. July 2023 Viennabase19: New impressive murals by street artists in Döbling

Student residence Viennabase, a company of WSE Wiener Standortentwicklung and Wien Holding, is providing a facade for the Kaiserschild Walls of Vision project.

As part of the Kaiserschild Walls of Vision project, works from the art collection of the Kaiserschild Foundation are being reinterpreted by street artists on facades in a contemporary way. The second facade design of this kind in Vienna has now been created on the facade of the Viennabase student residence in the 19th district of Vienna.

Kaiserschild Walls of Vision interprets old masters in a completely new way

The art collection of the Kaiserschild Foundation mainly includes works by Dutch old masters, which can be seen on loan in the exhibition "Between Dance and Death - Episodes of the Early Modern Age" in the Old Gallery in Schloss Eggenberg.

With Kaiserschild Walls of Vision, the foundation wants to place its art collection in new contexts and invites street artists to reinterpret paintings. They will be accompanied by curators from the Alte Galerie, who will give them an understanding of the work, the history of its creation and the artist.

On the facade of Viennabase19, the work "Bauernschenke" by the Dutch master David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) was interpreted in a contemporary way by Linda Steiner and Perk up. The two street artists worked together on this project for the first time.

Viennabase focuses on art for its 60th birthday

Since it was founded in 1963, the Viennabase student residence has repeatedly drawn attention to itself through activities in arts and culture. Numerous well-known personalities such as Ernst Fuchs, Wolfgang Hutter, Alfred Hrdlicka and Friedensreich Hundertwasser exhibited their art here in their early years. In the 1970s and 1980s, "culture weeks" took place with well-known cabaret artists and artists such as Josef Hader, H.C. Artmann, the Bluespumpn, Wilfried, Ostbahnkurti and Boris Bukowski. This year, Viennabase is celebrating its 60th anniversary as an international student residence operator and is setting a further artistic focus with the Kaiserschild Walls of Vision art façade. Young people from all over the world with different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds live together at Viennabase.

Art transcends these differences and is easy to understand no matter where you come from. One of the many reasons why Viennabase brings art into their homes is that viewing works of art and the messages contained in the works provide insights into the past and present social realities of life. Art is crucial for the well-being of young people, precisely because they find themselves in a new environment away from home. Art is good for people, promotes creative thinking and can both inspire and motivate.

Social gatherings as the central motif 

David Teniers the Younger is the most important representative of the Flemish peasant genre. Typical locations of this genre are barns and taverns. In contrast to other artists of the time, Teniers did not overdraw the depicted peasants in a caricatural manner.

In addition, David Teniers the Younger acted as curator of the collection of paintings assembled during Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's governorship in the Spanish Netherlands. This collection later came to Vienna and today forms the basis of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

In her works, the artist Linda Steiner concentrates primarily on the depiction of figures and bodies in all sizes, colors and shapes. Paul Riedmüller aka Perk up works with collages of found analogue or digital material and creates new combinations. Still lifes are a focus of his work.

In the reinterpretation, Linda Steiner brought the group of people in the foreground in Tenier's work stylistically into the present and made it more diverse, while retaining the basic theme of social gatherings. Perk up has transferred components such as jugs and pots from the original into the reinterpretation, but has given them a more sculptural and weighty role. Parts of the group of people in the background in Tenier's work can be found in a "window into the past" in the upper part of the reinterpretation.

Kaiserschild Walls of Vision interprets old masters in a completely new way

“Wien Holding has shaped the cityscape of Vienna for many years. The new mural in Döbling is a beautiful example of art in public space. A connection between old style and new design was already created during the last revitalization of the houses on the Viennabase19 site. Now the property has a new attraction. The newly designed exterior façade arouses particular curiosity among residents and passers-by at the same time and increases the attractiveness of the house even further," says Wien Holding Managing Director Sigrid Oblak.

"The special thing about this interpretation is that elements from the original as well as the styles of both street artists are incorporated," says Sandra Sonnleitner, Managing Director of the Kaiserschild Foundation.

"Art can be found almost everywhere in our house, such as artistically designed murals in the house or the sculpture of the important representative of the Austrian avant-garde Roland Goeschl in the inner courtyard of the student residence. Now, for the first time, we are providing a complete exterior facade for the Kaiserschild Foundation's Kaiserschild Walls of Vision project. A classic painting was selected for Viennabase that could not be more appropriate, as it reminds us of the colourful, sociable life in a student residence," says Viennabase Managing Director Alexandra Radl-Hanzal.

“A special challenge for the realization of the work of art was the wall on which the work of art was created. The side facade of the Viennabase building in the 19th district is characterized by its particularly large area with a long sloping edge and numerous windows. The large-scale design of the artwork creates a special accentuation and evokes positive emotions”, adds Thomas Lebinger, Managing Director of Viennabase.

Kaiserschild Walls of Vision was realized in cooperation with Calle Libre, a street art association.

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