“It is certain that the day will come where nothing visible to the eye is conceived without artistic anointment. One should always remember that the art of a nation is not only the measure of its prosperity, but also of its intelligence.”  

Otto Wagner

 

On the Cultural Clusters (CCs)

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When culture comes to the spotlight, what exactly are we putting on focus? Does it refer to the physical institutions and works within them, to the knowledge production on a specific place, or even, to the paths made by a local people? In terms of a cluster, does it have a distinctive area, encompasses buildings and streets, or is it an invisible net of information unsuitable on a map?

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It is essential to remind the reader that this is not a concluded definition of Cultural Clusters, mainly because one of the key arguments of this text is the idea that any individual can contribute to the development of a pre-existing reflection, turning it into an afterthought lifted up by the strength of society, which is sustained in parts by a cultural plinth itself.

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Even though other descriptions with examples of Cultural Clusters have already been coined and explored[1], my concept goes beyond physical boundaries and does not demand exact institutions to be imbedded in it. CCs work like a body: each organ (the institutions) has a specific and indispensable function, all connected through veins and arteries (the streets and passages between them) conducting the essential elements (the public) for the success of the whole. Its heart must be in the traffic of people passing through it, influenced by it and/or the amount of culture coming out of it as facts to the city around. Hence, Cultural Clusters are not only structures manned by artworks, books and cash-flowing, instead, to complete a full circle and a meaning they have to become part of a subjective experience, later on transgressing any kind of borders returning to the society as an already mature knowledge and collaborating for its constant intellectual recycling. To sum up, CCs could be seen as essential tools for the development of contemporary civilization, opening doors in several spheres – cultural, economic, political and social.

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Cultural Clusters around the world

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Throughout the 20th Century some cities spread around the globe have created Cultural Clusters in their urban area, intentionally or “accidentally” they constructed these heartlands where thousands of people work, visit or pass by everyday. To illustrate this idea, examples were chosen in different countries and with diverse institutions within them, some have cultural complexes included or may be part of a cultural district, what they have in common though is the role they play in the city: an ever-spinning engine of possibilities. In Madrid for instance three museums form the cluster along with other institutions inside the nearby Parque del Buen Retiro [2]. Interesting to say that the Cultural Cluster representing Sao Paulo is mostly inside or close by a park (Parque do Ibirapuera [3]), similar happens in Washington DC where the National Mall [4] has a vast leisure area in its centre. These open-air green spaces usually are sites of attraction for mixed groups of people in the cities and therefore inevitable end up becoming an extended part of the CC in some cases, a bonus point given that parks have always been an essential organ of cities, especially nowadays with environmental concerns in vogue. Munich on the other hand has its CC close by educational institutions, like the city’s foremost library and university, all located within walking distance from the Museum Brandhorst and the Pinakothek [5] buildings. The study case I am going to explore deeper here is The MuseumsQuartier Wien, a cultural complex by definition, a junction of an old part of the city of Vienna and a seed for the new Viennese identity.

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The MuseumsQuartier Wien (MQW)

 

In 2001 the city of Vienna earned a new crucial vein to pump up its noble cultural blood. Strategically located in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Museumsplatz is in the vicinity of the Imperial Buildings, the Secession and the Maria-Theresien-Platz [6] – where the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum are. The core of the Cultural Cluster is the MuseumsQuartier Wien [7], a 60.000 square meters area containing more than 50 independent institutions relating contemporary art exhibitions, architecture shows, experimental projects, restaurants, cafes and studios among other, it is a “multidisciplinary understanding of culture” [8], functioning as a kettle boiling of brand new ideas, its structure holds reurbanization aspects, respectable artworks and fresh social interaction, just to say a few of its main features. The project made by Austrian architects Ortner&Ortner serves also as a metaphor for recycling cities; adapting traditional buildings from the 18th and 19th Centuries[9] and adding new forms to the old square, they not only changed the visual aspects of the place, but made it possible for people to start thinking about it from another perspective as well.  In fact, a few years before the opening of the MQW the area was already stage for performances and installations of the artistic project Kunst am Bau (Art in Construction) since 1992, therefore it has been through a rejuvenating process for over two decades and currently doing so. A fair examination of each brick of this “contemporary temple” would take a longer analysis unnecessary for the point of this text, so I opted for a closer look into the ones I consider to be the paramount organs of this cultural body[10]:

 

Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK)

 

Vienna’s supreme museum of modern and contemporary art[11]  is the largest museum of its category in Central Europe and the most impressive building of the MQW, a huge concrete dark box in the main court contrasting all the other ones around it. This is the third home and name[12] of the collection mostly donated by the couple Peter and Irene Ludwig, which has remarkable works from the 20th Century – from early modernists like Kandinsky and Matisse to main artists from the 1960s and 1970s movements (e.g. Christo, Yves Klein), together with Pop Art highlights by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Crucial to emphasize here the curatorial decision to put up works by Austrian artists from the same periods and with similar works in the same rooms as the international ones (e.g. Fluxus and Conceptual art), giving the visitor the opportunity to compare them. Temporary exhibitions encompass key retrospectives (e.g. Sigmar Polke in 2007) and refreshing displays of its contemporary collection in dialogue with borrowed works from other similar museums – recently Hyper Real had a wide range of paintings and photographs concerning our view of the real. The distinction of MUMOK though is how they support experimental media and performances by young artists; the MUMOKFactory is always creating shows to aware the viewers of what are the latest artistic projects in town. In addition, there are frequent debates and events on the contemporary art production, so people can not only see but also discuss what they see and leave the place with a more matured opinion about it.

 

LEOPOLD MUSEUM

 

The Leopold Collection is the core of this museum. Just like the MUMOK, it was previously part of a private collection built by Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold since the 1950s, it became a museum in 1994 with the help of the Federal Government and moved to the MQW in 2001, where it is held in a big white cube opposing the MUMOK black similar shape building, both working as the lungs of the CC – national masterpieces in the first, international celebrated names in the second. Containing the largest number of Egon Schiele’s works in the world, key representatives of the Secessionist movement and Austrian Expressionism (e.g. Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka), in addition to significant Austrian objects from the modernist times, the Leopold Museum[13] articulates all these with a curatorial basis on the development of the country – mostly Vienna’s; the visitors can learn how Sigmund Freud’s theories relates to Klimt’s artworks and Otto Wagner’s projects, everything through texts and pieces disposed clearly to impress the tourists and to remind the Vienneses of their intellectual power and heritage. But, that is just the permanent part of the collection: on the ground floor the museum hosts important international exhibitions (such as Cézanne – Picasso – Giacometti) and on the lower level usually contemporary shows (e.g. RINGTURM.ART, the Collection Vienna Insurance Group recently on view). These temporary exhibits bring the local population back to the venue frequently, where they can enjoy new shows and even rethink their past in the same visit.

 

KUNSTHALLE WIEN

 

Based in two locations and with no permanent collection, the KUNSTHALLE wien [14] is the major house for international contemporary art shows in Austria. The original building from 1992 in Karlsplatz has become the Project Space where video, installation and performance arts are exhibited; right next to it, the Public Space is an adjacent container with its façade serving as support for the artworks, an interesting channel of communication with the urban space around the platz – already criticised by Otto Wagner as a “region” because of its complicating construction sites and later on traffic problems. After a new urban-planning the KUNSTHALLE wien developed a major role in the area, articulating it with the passers through a visual language: temporary artistic interventions on the interfaces of the building[15]. Close to the foremost opera, a constellation of universities (including the Technical University of Vienna, which has a collaboration programme with the institution) and the Secession (a traditional venue also presenting contemporary exhibitions in recent times) the site is within walking distance to the Museumsplatz and the headquarter of the KUNSTHALLE.

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The new main office was opened to the public in 2001, but the MQW and the KUNSTHALLE were already advertising it since 1995 by realizing temporary shows in the area. Almost like a bridge between the MUMOK and the Leopold Museum, the building is partly original from the Imperial era and to some extent constructed for its new purpose, a physical metaphor for a fundamental idea behind the institution – connect the past and the future through the artistic trends of the present. It has two halls for temporary exhibitions, all focused on how to read contemporary art from dissimilar angles consequently stimulating subjective interpretations of culture (e.g. Power Up, a recent show only with female pop artists), however, before entering the halls the public is greeted by a videoarchive with works by national and international artists and a collaboration programme with the University of Applied Arts Vienna, which resulted in a prize for the students; the back of the building works also as an exhibition surface for the project wall, in which artists are invited to create works directly in the urban space (once more) and available for anyone who is passing by; last but not least, the photo wall and video wall, located on the entrance of the building and inside the Café HALL, serve as platforms for young artists inspired by Austria in their works – an exchange between the country and the people where one gives back the motivation offered through new founts of ideas. After all, the KUNSTHALLE is beyond the art it presents: engages with the city in many projects and has a social commitment with it.

 

quartier21

 

This is what I believe to be the brain of the MQW, where brand new ideas come from and the source of creativity to the cluster. The extensive web of buildings spread throughout the MQW – predominantly in the front side reaffirming physically the quartier21[16] as the head of the whole cluster – is composed by more than 60 independent cultural offices, from design to digital culture passing through fashion, mostly small and medium-sized initiatives. While passing through the spaces one stumbles upon a bookstore, cafés, music, fashion and design shops, exhibition corners and offices responsible for some of the projects; when outside the buildings one walks through the original Baroque passages now serving as support for graphic, comic and street art, another project of the institution and once again the CC flirting with people directly out in the urban space. One of the aces the quartier21 holds is the Artist-in-Residence programme, which invites annually 40 international artists to live in studios inside the MQW for one year while creating projects with the organizations; this benefits both sides and still sets Vienna as a friendly destination for a contemporary art trend[17]: artists travelling to work in a wide range of places around the globe, developing a rich exchange of knowledge with the city while there. Finally, quartier21 is known since its foundation in 2002 as a “contemporary cultural cluster for creative initiatives” – how does a cultural cluster inside a Cultural Cluster work and look like? Visionary.​

 

Architechturezentrum Wien (Az W)

 

Austria’s foremost architecture centre and museum is the oldest institution working in the MQW, since 1993. A permanent show of Austrian architecture from the 20th and 21st Century (a_show) together with a public library and a second gallery for temporary exhibitions enables the Az W [18] to be an educational institution before all, where people can research, discuss and take architecture as a multi-potential discipline; activities like Sunday excursions throughout the city, symposiums and school projects provide knowledge to all groups of ages, developing the consciousness around a vital spine for contemporary culture – perfectly represented in Platz da!, a recent temporary show focused on European Urban Public Spaces, the issues and solutions for these areas in cities nowadays.

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The City and The Cluster

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Already ranked first two consecutive years in the Innovation Cities Index[19] and gradually climbing on the top cities list of Quality of Living Index[20], it is impossible not to relate the effects of the MQW and surroundings with the development of Vienna. The CC fosters economic flow (restaurants, cafés, shops), diplomatic relations with other cities (studios, exchange programme) and social activities (events hosted in some of the halls, external facilities in the summer), all naturally joint by a cultural beat.

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Already referred as the “third place” in local people’s life[21], the MQW is one of the ten largest cultural complexes of the world[22] and already one of the main attractions of the capital, as well as an essential venue for local people and a symbol of Vienna in the 21st Century. The question now is not whether the CC is primordial to the city, for its impacts have already been noticed, but how to improve this relationship.

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Behold Beyond

 

The future possibilities for the MQW are wide open. In 2006 the quartier21 made a competition for architects requiring ideas for a possible physical extension of the complex – the MQ2020 Idea Competition. The challenge had over 70 entries and regardless of the winner, who actually gained more with it was the city, since it only proves again how much engaged with the CC the citizens are becoming. Whether this scheme will be officially taken to a second level or not is irrelevant for this analysis, although it certainly would be interesting to observe what happens in the following years.

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Stepping back outside Vienna, I would like to briefly take the reader to two upcoming Cultural Clusters, one in Hong Kong and the other in Abu Dhabi. The West Kowloon Cultural District [23] will be built in an area of 40 hectares – this includes a commercial property area along with the cultural facilities and more than half of it dedicated to open-air spaces. The City Park project signed by Foster + Partners has recently been approved as the master plan and the first phase should be concluded in 2015; its main mission? To turn Hong Kong into Asia’s major cultural destination and bring new opportunities for the local people. The second CC is the 27 square kilometre Saadiyat Island [24], another massive construction in Abu Dhabi, containing residential buildings, beaches, resorts and other leisure facilities right next to the cultural region, which will house the first branch of the Louvre (by Jean Nouvel), a Performing Arts Centre (by Zaha Hadid), the Zayed National Museum (by Foster + Partners) and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (by Frank Gehry)[25]. The venues should be launched separately according to each building timeline, with total completion aimed for 2018; it is supposed to sum forces with the already established touristic industry of Dubai and gradually contribute to the new cultural era of the Middle East. The two future CCs have already been polemic in the media, mainly because of the initial high budgets declared and the infra-structure issues around them, criticized by some in terms of the problems in creating these specific-focused districts. I believe however, that both projects will still raise much more discussions giving the fact that they are not only bringing a cultural turn in their respective cities, but also because the economy behind these countries is growing stronger as their role in the global politics flourishes. The effects coming out of all this will be much related to what exactly will the venues be showing and how will they be managed - either for the positive or for the negative implications -, matters only time will confirm.

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Meanwhile, more and more people are gathering, living, working and visiting these Cultural Clusters around the world; their routines might be slightly altered by the CCs or extremely changed by them, nevertheless, they are not the same anymore, for what is experienced in these sites is beyond what is sensed while there, it is constantly renewing its meanings. How contemporary cities are reinventing their cultural quarters will later on define the strategies created by their people in order to get to the frontline of the new world.

 

“Museums seem to be about objects, but are really about people.”

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Barry Lord (KUNSTHALLE wien)

 

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Bibliography

 

Az W. 09 03 2011 <http://www.azw.at>.

Cazzetta, Silvia. Cultural clusters and the city. MA. Universität Wien. Vienna, 2008.

Groys, Boris. Art Power. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.

Hitters, Erik and Greg Richards. "The Creation and Management of Cultural Clusters." 2002. Social Science Research Network. 09 03 2011 <http://ssrn.com/abstract=368761>.

KUNSTHALLE wien. 09 03 2011 <http://www.kunsthallewien.at>.

Leopold Museum. 09 03 2011 <http://www.leopoldmuseum.org>.

Mommaas, Hans. "Cultural Clusters and the Post-industrial City: Towards the Remapping of Urban Cultural Policy." Urban Studies. Vol. 41. Carfax Publishing, 2004. 507-532.

MUMOK. 09 03 2011 <http://www.mumok.at>.

MuseumsQuartier Wien. 09 03 2011 <http://www.mqw.at>.

quartier21. 09 03 2011 <http://quartier21.mqw.at>.

Saadiyat Island. 09 03 2011 <http://www.saadiyat.ae>.

Thea, Carolee. On curating: interviews with ten international curators. New York: D.A.P., 2009.

Waldner, Wolfgang. "The Development of the MuseumsQuartier Wien and Its Significance for the City of Vienna." When Creative Industries Crossover with Cities. Hong Kong, 2007.

West Kowloon Cultural District. 09 03 2011 <http://www.wkcda.hk>.

Wien. 09 03 2011 <http://www.wien.gv.at>.

[i]

[1] (Hitters e Richards); (Cazzetta); (Mommaas)

[2] Museo Del Prado, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Palacio de Velazquez and Palacio de Cristal

[3] Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Museu de Arte Moderna, Bienal, Oca, Museu Afro Brasil and Auditório do Ibirapuera

[4] Smithsonian complex

[5] Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne

[6] These institutions are the “surrounding area” from the title, which I am taking as part of the CC giving their proximity to the MQW, their cultural importance and the similar public going to all of them.

[7] http://www.mqw.at

[8] Dr. Wolfgang Waldner, MQW’s director. (Waldner)

[9] Parts of the buildings forming the current MuseumsQuartier were originally the imperial stables.

[10] NB: each institution has its own website apart from their pages on the MQW home site.

[11] http://www.mumok.at

[12] 1962 – Museum of the 20th Century; 1979 – Museum of Modern Art

[13] http://www.leopoldmuseum.org

[14] http://www.kunsthallewien.at

[15] Hans Ulrich Obrist: “Curators invent new formats for exhibitions and architects must respond to them.” (Thea 5)

[16] http://quartier21.mqw.at

[17] “All active participants in today’s cultural world are now expected to offer their productive output to a global audience, to be prepared to be constantly on the move from one venue to the next, and to present their work with equal persuasion – regardless of where they are.” (Groys 106)

[18] http://www.azw.at

[19] 2007 and 2008

[20] http://www.wien.gv.at

[21] Ray Oldenburg, American sociologist : “An informal public gathering space where communication and interaction take centre stage – a third place beside our homes and work” (MuseumsQuartier Wien)

[22] (Waldner)

[23] http://www.wkcda.hk

[24] http://www.saadiyat.ae

[25] All the references to architects are worth mention considering that the future buildings might also become new icons for the cities, since the referred “starchitects” have already done this in other venues. In fact, the selection of them already implies the expectations for a possible new postcard to the city.

[i] The images on this document are private property of the author.