KONTAKT COLLECTION AT THE MSN

Kontakt Collection is a Vienna-based organisation focusing on art from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, specifically from the 1960s and ‘70s. Kontakt Collection, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, combines art collection with research and exhibitions typically displayed at non-museum venues (such as an office building or a supermarket). Currently, the organisation, chaired by its artistic director Kathrin Rhomberg, juxtaposes reflection on art several decades old with current political, social and environmental problems (e.g. by setting the dematerialized work of art of the 1960s in the context of a discussion on the carbon footprint generated by a work of art through its transport). This is owing to the fact that the practice of conceptual art in our region was often convergent with political activism and awareness of planetary changes.

The name Kontakt (full name: Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Group and ERSTE Foundation Association for the Promotion of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European Art) was derived from a work by the Slovak artist Július Koller, who called on his contemporaries to pursue art for the purpose of engagement rather than mere arrangement. Koller used found objects, acted within the status quo, and preferred real life over artistic visions. The bard of a new cosmohumanist culture, he always sought to establish contact with his public.

Two antihappenings by Július Koller will be re-enacted for the MSN: Univerzálny Futurologický Otaźnik (U.F.O.) from 1978 and Časopriestorové vymedzenie psychofyzickej činnosti matérie (Antihappening) from 1968. The opening of the new MSN building will also see a performance by the Hungarian artist Katalin Ladik and a performative exhibition When I State that I Am an Anarchist.

In summer 2025 the second part of the programme curated jointly by Kontakt Collection and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw will be launched as an exhibition incorporated into museum spaces adjacent to galleries. This time, the works will form a dialogue with the MSN’s permanent collection. The author of both presentations is Pierre Bal Blanc, an independent curator and writer, former director of CAC Brétigny and a member of the curatorial team for documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens.