Kunsthalle Wien

Kunsthalle Wien’s Karlsplatz exhibition space reopens with an exhibition by Rawan Almukhtar (b. 1991, Baghdad) and Ida Kammerloch (b. 1991, Izhevsk), recipients of the Kunsthalle Wien Preis 2024. Established initially in 2002, since 2014 it has been organised via a cooperation with Vienna’s University of Applied Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts. The award seeks to support emerging artists living and working in Vienna and to promote discourse in contemporary art, bridging a gap between academic study and professional artistic practice. One graduate from each university receives € 3,000 and a joint exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien. The exhibition is accompanied by a new book published in German and English containing interviews with the artists and specially-commissioned essays by Alicja Melzacka and Rijin Sahakian.

Rawan Almukhtar studied Art and Intervention | Concept at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His paintings and drawings take inspiration from his experiences as a refugee and activist. Almukhtar sees his practice as a way to create ‘a collective moment of witnessing the stories of those who have been overlooked in the West, while also questioning the ways in which such people should be considered.’ One of his most personal paintings – EYEWITNESS (2016) – deals with the artist’s brother, Mohammad Almukhtar (‘Mukhtar’), who was fourteen years old at the time. Raised during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, subsequent civil war (2006–2008), and the war against ISIS (2013–2017), Mukhtar had never known a stable homeland. The artist captures his brother’s changing adolescent body facing the uncertain future of a failed state, while remaining unsure of his own future in Austria. The work is part of a series begun in Baghdad, in the year leading up to Almukhtar’s departure from Iraq, and finished while he sought asylum in Vienna.

Ida Kammerloch studied TransArts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her recent video essays draw upon footage recorded by her grandfather in post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s. He made extensive recordings of his daily life as a worker in the so-called shuttle trade, where he would buy goods in China to resell them back home. Kammerloch uses her own family history to explore the complex interrelationships between global capitalism and Russian national identity, against the backdrop of architecture and trade. The film ULTRA ALL INCLUSIVE (2024) explores the interior and exterior spaces of a hotel in Antalya (Turkey) that was built as a replica of the Kremlin in Moscow. Navigating the luxurious complex under the guise of a tourist, Kammerloch considers the uncanny nature of the distinctive architecture of a political superpower appropriated for holidaymaking. The video is mounted on an Alu-Dibond print of a scaled-up souvenir that Kammerloch bought at the hotel in the ‘Vladimir’ events room. The toy draws a parallel between contemporary Russia and the time in which her grandfather sold such items.

Curated by Hannah Marynissen