The adaptation measures planned for the Karlsplatz have largely been implemented. The goal is to enhance this cultural center of Vienna with its many art institutions as a leisure-time attraction. Already during its early phase the Kunsthalle made a significant contribution with its adjacent café that served as an interface between art and the public. As part of the project that covers the entire Karlsplatz, 100 Instructions for Action, which presents ideas and perspectives of contemporary art, passers-by are asked to perform acts, do movements with their bodies or to stop and reflect - all for a maximum of five minutes. The multi-part installation of the Kunsthalle Vienna and its project space is geared to urban residents interested in art and passers-by (whether strollers, hurriers or dawdlers).
The 100 Instructions to Act on bright yellow panels mounted on lamp posts survey Karlsplatz in a new way, placing it in a new cartography. The art trail leads away from the well-trodden routes of everyday life and allows the onlooker to experience Karlsplatz with artistic eyes and ideas.
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It is intended to throw a monkey wrench in the works and, in fleeting moments of contemplation, call into question a smooth functioning of the machinery of exploitation.
For decades Karlsplatz has been seen as an urban problem zone. In the seething sea of motorized traffic the pedestrian zone is also a corridor of acceleration, subject to the dictates of mobility and reduced communication, as well as an ideal spot for the contemporary art of rapid perception and ephemeral aesthetics as introduced to the viewer in contributions from Europe and America, Asia and Africa. 100 Instructions to Act sees itself as a global project taking place in the heart of Vienna, spanning the globe without the negative tinge of culturally levelling globalization. A project of the Kunsthalle Wien that has been appointed a small support
The instructions distributed all over Karlsplatz have as many different foci as contemporary art itself - no. 17: "Lie down under a tree as if you had fallen over!" (Erwin Wurm), no. 7: "Build an oven in your mental eye" (Pipolitti Rist) or no. 47: "Try to define yourself between two languages" (Jan Svenungsson). Or also no. 35: "Don’t pay any attention to instructions to act" (Stocker).
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