Who can fail to be inquisitive? For a year, cranes, bulldozers and cement mixers have dominated the skyline of the new building. However, from this May onwards, reality and the museum will both make their comeback. And after this break, life will return to the Liaunig complex with fresh élan and an additional 2,500 square metre of space. "Realities" is the title of the exhibition in the large hall and this will include works by Peter Pongratz, Martha Jungwirth, Kurt Kocherscheidt, Wolfgang Herzig, Robert Zeppel-Sperl and Franz Ringel, who formed an important group in Austria’s post-war art scene. New is the extensive, triangular room for temporary exhibitions, which in 2015 will be dedicated to the Irish artist Sean Scully. Moreover, if visitors were excited in the past by the exhibition of golden artefacts from Africa, they will be even more delighted by the fact that ready for the reopening year this has been supplemented with a display of further items from the Liaunig family collection. Special shows will be dedicated to decorated glassware and portrait miniatures dating from the 16th to the 19th century.
From the outside, the extension to the museum is barely visible, as the new areas are virtually all underground. Apart from the triangular gallery with adjacent atrium and the rooms for the glass and portrait miniature collections, which are located directly behind the gold collection, a shop now augments the museum’s facilities.
Following the reconstruction work, a new artistic intervention has been integrated into the architecture from “querkraft“, which has won numerous awards, and is characterised by exposed concrete, steel and glass. As a counterpoint to Brigitte Kowanz’s existing light installation in the access area of the gold collection, Esther Stocker has designed the corridor leading to the new, special exhibition rooms. Via this connecting passage visitors can also enter the spectacular, domed sculpture depot, which after the reopening will be accessible for the first time.
The enlargement of the museum has also been accompanied by a change in its opening hours. It can now be viewed without prior registration for Wednesdays to Sundays between 10.00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. Children aged 12 and over are also most welcome. Guided tours through the exhibits will be available at 11.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. These are included in the price of admission, but participation is not obligatory.
Therefore, nothing stands in the way of a visit to the museum during its opening hours from the beginning of May to the end of October 2015. So look in and be astonished!
