In the capital of Austria, there are over a hundred self-organized, loosely structured, not-for-profit spaces focused on contemporary art. In this year’s edition of the Independent Space Index Festival, 68 of them participated in the festival program over the last weekend of May.
Without a doubt, there is a lot of motivation, freedom, solidarity, and experimentation among like-minded individuals and initiatives in art and culture. The Festival is an important platform for giving this ecosystem visibility, contextualizing it, and making its range closer to a wider public.
The festival centre this year was the Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz exhibition space: a public meeting point for guided tours through the spaces, and a place for talk series: Indexing as Method: Toward, In Relation, Beyond, curated and moderated by Michał Leszuk. Spanning three days, from Friday to Sunday, the talk series brought together artists, curators, writers, and cultural workers who run the spaces or curatorial projects themselves in Austria or abroad (Serbia, Belgium, Switzerland, and New York). They engaged in discussions about different sets of positions each day: the unpredictable nature of running such spaces; the architecture as an activating point for thinking about exhibitions presented within; and the role of textual support in artistic programming.
Some of the spaces were open over the weekend, presenting exhibitions that had already been running before the festival and would continue after it, while others chose to present Pop-up exhibitions on view only during the festival itself. One of these was a duo exhibition by Helsinki-based artists Niklas Feinik and Tuure Leppänen, both on an Erasmus exchange in Vienna. Titled „resin in my brain glues my pictures together,“ the exhibition presented works that flirt with motifs of video games and technological aesthetics. The exhibition took place at dito, an artist-run space.
In the space for Artistic Research and Social Design viktoria, artist Irena Pejčić showed an installation featuring 26 plaster heads lying around the floor of the space, representing the 26 women who lost their lives in femicides that happened in Austria during 2023. The artist translates this statistic into a sculptural presence and builds a remembrance that disappeared from public consciousness as soon as the news headlines faded.
In the backyard of the studio space, used by ten artists. The space Cache was once a garage, but since 2023 is meant for the solo presentations of the artist selected by the artist occupying the studio. Running for ten days, with a closing after the festival, the solo exhibition FEATURES by Switzerland-born artist Jonas Morgenthaler. His sculptures resembling hanging shopping bag lamps are flirting with design; the wooden structure elevates the floor, and the wall object is listed in the floor plan by the title Painting. The potential of objects is challenging narrative system, yet not necessarily trying to tell a single story.
In the space of Improper Walls, the seventh edition of the annual exhibition with an accompanying program marking Mental Health Awareness Month in May took place. This year’s title, NEUROTOPIAS, features works by Alina Pust, Oleksandr Halishchuk, and Lo Moran, and workshops by Magdalena Chowaniec, studio Immerea, and Patricia J. Reis. The exhibition and the program encourage open discussions about stigmatized topics and their socio-political consequences. Exhibition and the program run until 22. July 2026.
Exhibitions to check during June and July include the solo exhibition Humour Collapse by Laurids Oder in Pech, the group exhibition happiness as resistance III. EATING THE RAINBOW / DÉRIVE – Horizont Stadt curated by Ursula Maria Probst in FLUCC. Group exhibition d e f in Kulturdrogerie. Rey Akdogan, Valentina Triet: act II in KUNSTVEREIN GARTENHAUS. Katja Svejkovsky: Cabinet of Curiosity at Ministry of Artists. Marlene Hausegger, Read Ibrahim: Sitting on the Sidewalk at PHILOMENA+.
Since just a few days is hardly enough to visit ALL the spaces, we highly recommend using the printed map you grabbed during the festival, or the online INDEX of Independent Spaces as a guide during the whole year, and sharing to friends and friends of the friends who might be coming to Vienna for a visit.
Independent Space Index 2026
Festival of independent art spaces in Vienna
2026.independentspaceindex.at
Independent Space Index – www.independentspaceindex.at