Guided Tour to the Exhibition
Date: Monday, November 2nd, 2015, 6pm – 7pm
Location: City Hall of Vienna – Wienbibliothek (Meeting point: Registration desk)
Guide: Mag. Gerhard MURAUER ( City of Vienna – Wienbibliothek)
max 25 persons
On 1st May 1865 the first part of the newly projected Ringstraße was handed over ceremoniously to the Viennese public. Precisely seven years after the opening of Franz-Josefs-Kai closed lines of representative and glamorous palaces stood on both sides of the boulevards between Schwarzenbergplatz and Burggarten.
The first monumental building, the k. k. Hofoperntheater, still awaited its completion, a circumstance which did not prevent the Ministry of the Interior from hosting a ceremonial opening act of the Ringstraße in front of the Burgtor.
150 years later we are looking back at the changeful history of the Viennese boulevard, which experienced economic booms and market collapses, deployments and demonstrations, times of war and peace as well as refusal and rediscovery, and which has been discussed again lately. The particularity of the exhibition in the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus is its view on architecture and urban development, social and political life as well as cultural and economic activities through the lens of medial production. For this already started with the preparation work for the competition, when the Viennese newspapers came up with numerous reports to accompany the great reconstruction program media-effectively and also propagandistically. Apart from the touristic commercialisation of the street, this urban space once again is a place, where the social desires of the Viennese as well as of the Austrian people are reported – either openly delivered or with silent gestures. In the exhibition with its detailed elaborations, the development of the emerging mass media is perceptible as well as its effects on the reporting, writing, composing and reflecting on the Ringstraße. While in early photography views of the Glacis and in films scenes of the Ringstraße can be seen, in selected posters of the time the transformation from text to picture posters can be detected. This medial firework is topped by audio recordings of famous composers as well as by scenes of a famous television series of the 1980s.
In five thematic areas objects of the unique and extensive collections of the Wienbibliothek are exhibited, to draw a bow from the first ideas and suggestions, from the destruction of the fortification and the call for proposals to the constructional implementation as well as to the critical, artistic and academic discussion about the Ringstraße. In an additional sector special attention is turned to the construction of the new town hall (Neues Rathaus), for which different locations were intended after 1858 and which in the late 1860s finally found its prominent place opposite of the k. k. Hofburgtheater. Through a specific contextualisation of the exhibits, the outstanding medial aspects surrounding the urbanistic masterpiece of the Historismus are conveyed colourfully. The exhibition in the town hall is completed by a chronological outline of the main and most important buildings (private and public as well) and their architects. Lots of pictures illustrate life and society along the glamorous Viennese boulevard through 150 years.
Link to the Exhibition (German) – http://www.wien.gv.at/kultur/wienbibliothek/ausstellungen/
At the same time an exhibition focusing on Karl Goldmark, the „Makart der Musik“, takes place in the music collection of the Wienbibliothek, which complements the exhibition on the Ringstraße lucratively with its exhibits on literature and music.
Publication
Harald R. Stühlinger (Hg.)
Vom Werden der Wiener Ringstraße
The book is published on occasion of the anniversary of the opening of the Viennese Ringstraße and concentrates on the time from the 1850s to the present. The thematic framework encloses the origins of the project to cover the Glacis with buildings, the realisation of the grand buildings and the neat open spaces, as well as the appropriation and critical debate about the “Ring”. One focus lies on the reception, the medial presentation and the visually overwhelming history of impact of this for the urban development so important boulevard. The comprehensive essays are complemented by the highlighted presentation and detailed description of selected treasures of the Wienbibliothek, which let us experience new findings about the history of this masterpiece of urban architecture.
Harald R. Stühlinger (Hg.)
Vom Werden der Wiener Ringstraße
400 pages, 25 x 27 cm
Hardback
Four-color throughout
ISBN 978-3-99300-218-3
€ 29,90
Publisher: Metro-Verlag Wien