Architecture
JAN 2023
I spent the past few weeks in my hometown Vienna, and usually like to go by the KunstHausWien, a museum designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It is the world’s only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser’s works and hosts regular temporary exhibitions of other artists. His work is very colorful, and his architecture oftentimes consists of odd lines and many patterns. Therefore, it is common for someone to refer to it as psychedelic looking.
I came across a text, written in October 1990, about man’s relationship to nature through architecture which I thought was beautiful and relevant to highlight here:
KunstHausWien, fully aware of its role in the heart of Europe, and in an effort similar to that of the Vienna Secession some hundred years ago, strives for a renewal of relationship in harmony with the creativity of nature and man.
Art must meet its purpose.
Art must show its colours.
Does art support or fight creation?
Is art for or against man?
Art must meet man´s and nature´s pace.
Art must respect nature and the laws of nature.
Art must respect man and man’s aspiration for true and durable values.
Art must again be a bridge between the creativity of nature and the creativity of man.
Art must regain its universal function for all and not be just a fashionable business for insiders.
KunstHausWien is a bastion against the dictatorship of the straight line, the ruler and T-square, a bridgehead against the grid system and the chaos of the absurd.
KunstHausWien stands up for an art and an architecture in harmony with creation that mankind has been waiting and longing for. Art must free itself from the ties of guided intellectual tutorship. Art should not suffer speculation and cultural industrialisation. Art should not endure dogmatic enslavement through negative theories.
Europe’s and the world’s liberation from oppressive dictatorships has to be followed by a liberation of creation in all its aspects from a worldwide oppression by a political cultural dictatorship still in power.
In quest of a new orientation in the light of the rising awareness of a changed relationship between man and nature, we are convinced of the mission of art at the threshold into the new millennium.
Art must have a purpose.
Art must create lasting values.
The courage to strive for beauty in harmony with nature.
The task of the KunstHausWien is to achieve this goal.
