About the KunstHausWien

The KunstHausWien, Austria’s first Green Museum, focuses on the multifaceted relationship between humans and the nature we have shaped and formed. Ecology is the starting point for our everyday work, for how we create and how we exhibit. We draw our inspiration from the visions and works of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, whose oeuvre is shown on two levels. Temporary exhibitions featuring the works of international, up-and-coming and established artists address questions pertinent to the climate crisis and biodiversity. Always searching for those answers enabling us to create a future together. Then the KunstHausWien is a meeting place, a place fostering exchange and cooperation.

A museum lives from the paintings, sculptures and objects it is home to. Beyond its role as host, the KunstHausWien is itself a work of art. The windows dance, the floor is uneven. Plants grow out of and along the humpy façade. Over which irregular mosaics are scattered. What Hundertwasser has created here exists nowhere else. The KunstHausWien is also the only building in Vienna designed by the artist that is open to visitors every day of the year. Another building created by Hundertwasser is located only a few metres away: the Hundertwasserhaus. Belonging to the Stadt Wien, the apartment building, unlike the museum, is not accessible to the public; but it is a must-see for anyone interested in architecture.

To be precise, the history of the KunstHausWien goes back to the year 1892, when the building was still used by the Thonet furniture factory. Not until 100 years later was it rebuilt based on plans by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who wished to create “a stronghold against the false order of the straight line, a bastion against the grid system and the chaos of nonsense ”. Besides his own works, Hundertwasser was already then inviting other contemporary artists to show their works in temporary exhibitions, artists who were similarly exploring the relationship humans have to their environment. Positioning the museum as a location that connects art and ecology while seeking to engage with the important issues of our time – this remains the mission to the present day. The awarding of the ecolabel as the first Green Museum in 2018 is a result of this endeavour – and the Klima Biennale Wien, organised and hosted by the KunstHausWien since 2024, its logical continuation.

In 2018, KunstHausWien was the first museum to be certified with the Austrian Ecolabel.

The first thing to catch the eye is the untamed architecture. Unmistakeably, Friedensreich Hundertwasser – the museum’s founder is present everywhere, not least through the largest permanent presentation of his works worldwide. They are the roots, branched out in all directions over the years. Inspiration has grown out of his engagement on behalf of the environment.

As part of the Museums for Future movement, KunstHausWien is committed to effective climate protection and the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement. Even without a local alliance, we remain an active voice for ecological and socio-political responsibility in the cultural sector. As a green museum, we create space for discussions with artists, scientists and activists - for a sustainable future for all.

As the first Green Museum, it negotiates environmental and sustainability issues within the art discourse. Understanding a museum as a producer of values, which, as a public institution, has to convey a socio-political attitude, KunstHausWien is engaged in the Museums for Future movement.

With the pioneering vision and power of art, the Klima Biennale Wien is driving the paradigm change towards a viable future on our planet. Participation, cooperation and raising awareness are the central tools in this process. Organised and hosted by the KunstHausWien, the Biennale spreads new ideas throughout the city, looking to find effective local community responses to the climate crisis. From a perspective drawing on art, design, architecture and science, the Klima Biennale Wien addresses the topics of global change, the climate crisis and species extinction. Our foremost concern is to find new ways to share knowledge and enter into cooperative discussion.