Curated by Pedro Gadanho, Harald Gruendl, Maria Lind, and Peter Weibel

Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, the director of MAK, the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, has conceived a biennial that will engage art, architecture, and design. Pointing to premodernist Vienna’s experiments in form and reform, Thun-Hohenstein suggests the Austrian capital might be the ideal interface for fostering interdisciplinary approaches to social change in the context of “digital modernity.” Seven exhibitions will be featured in this inaugural iteration, among them a group show foregrounding contemporary practices that reveal a return to the emancipatory ideals of the Enlightenment, a presentation of design scenarios responding to the architectural challenges faced by six global megacities, and ten projects that shed light on sustainable modes of living in the “smart city.”

Translated from German by Gerrit Jackson.

— Brigitte Huck