HAVE A SEAT!
The Park Bench as Social Sculpture

MUSA Startgalerie
1010 Vienna, Felderstraße 6–8
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There are 19,884 benches in Vienna‘s parks. The city’s streets and public transit stops offer  numerous additional opportunities for sitting. They seem like the  perfect expression of Viennese Gemütlichkeit: an invitation to rest, linger, and observe. 

But benches are also instruments of social order. They structure public space, especially through the increasing presence of „hostile design“ – an approach to urban planning that seeks to prevent undesirable uses such as spending entire nights on park benches.  
For the exhibition „Have a Seat! The Park Bench as Social  Sculpture,“ artists were invited to explore Vienna‘s street furniture. 

The park bench becomes a photo motif, an installation object, and a chance for visitors to have a seat themselves. The results are inter­ventions in an urgent debate: who owns and controls public space?

Artists: Aurianne Chevandier & Gerd Sulzenbacher, Iklim Doğan, mirabella paidamwoyo* dziruni, Anna Jermolaewa, Leopold Kessler, Moritz Matschke, Anastasiya Yarovenko

HAVE A SEAT!
The Park Bench as Social Sculpture - Information

Press comments

Der Frage Wem gehört der öffentliche Raum?" widmen sich Werke - Videos, Fotos, Essays und Installationen - sieben Kunstschaffen der. Die Parkbankwird dabei gleichsam zum verwendbaren Möbelstück und zum Installationsobjekt.
Der Standard