This one-day symposium brings together Austria-based curators and theorists to discuss the ethics and aesthetics of ambiguous orders.
In contemporary art, the notion of giving is more than a metaphor – it structures the relational economies of curating, institution-building, and artistic labour. Yet giving, as a seemingly benevolent act, is entangled in histories of extraction, systems of recognition, and economies of attention. To give, in art, is also to frame, to delimit, and to condition the terms of reception. The question, then, is not only what is given, but how, by whom, and under what institutional conditions.
This symposium asks what forms of giving might still interrupt rather than reinforce dominant systems – what it means to give without subsuming, to host without absorbing, to support without smoothing over contradiction. Can we still offer the aesthetic strategies of humour, irony, or opacity without their immediate assimilation into the attention economy? In a field where funding is tied to legibility and participation is framed as inclusion, curators must keep inventing grammars – ones that make space not only for the unspeakable, but for the unclear, the unoptimized, the unresolved.
The symposium Ambivalent Orders was conceived by the Austrian Association of Curators (AAC) (Mirela Baciak, Freda Fiala, Laura Amann, Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas, Théo-Mario Coppola, Cornelia Lein, Andrea Popelka and Jovanka Popova) and organised in partnership with the MuseumsQuartier Wien, with the kind support of the BMWKMS (Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport).
Participation in the symposium is free of charge. Registration is not required.
15.11.2025
10:00–18:00
Barocke Suiten, MuseumsQuartier
10.00–10.20
Welcome by Bettina Leidl, director of MuseumsQuartier Wien
Welcome remarks & short input by AAC
10.20–11.00
Keynote by Gürsoy Doğtaş
MY MOTHER, THE ‘GUEST WORKER’, AND I—ON CURATING AS A GESTURE OF GIVING BACK
In German Language.
11.00–12.30
GIVING, TAKING, RETURNING, RECLAIMING – ENTANGLEMENTS OF BECOMING IN THE FUTURE MUSEUM
This panel reflects on the tensions between giving and taking, between returning and reclaiming – gestures that reach beyond exchange to form relations, nurture responsibility, and reveal institutions in states of becoming. At its heart lies the idea of the “museum to come” – an institution in transition, yet also an imagined space sustained by resonance and reciprocity. Within this shifting field, the histories of objects, acts of return, and gestures of reclamation unfold as processes through which material origins, symbolic meanings, and shared responsibilities are continuously reimagined and redefined.
With: Claudia Banz (Director, Weltmuseum Wien), Matthias Beitl (Director, Volkskundemuseum Wien), Pia Schölnberger (Head, Commission for Provenance Research, BMKÖS), Vanessa Spanbauer (Curator and Historian)
Moderated by Freda Fiala (AAC)
In German Language
12.30–13.30 Lunch break
13.30–15.00
NOT THAT INNOCENT
AUSTRIA’S COLONIAL COMPLICITIES: ON EMPIRE, AMNESIA AND RESPONSIBILITY
This conversation discusses Austria’s still oft-invoked, though long dispelled, colonial innocence by tracing its entanglements with other imperial powers, racial capitalism, and epistemic violence. Aside from a few short-lived and economically unsuccessful ventures, Austria never realized its fantasies of overseas territory—a fact often misused to exempt it from colonial involvement.
From imperial domination over neighbouring territories under the Habsburgs, to participating in colonial violence through partnerships, and contributing to broader European colonial systems, Austria helped shape, and was shaped by, colonial ideologies in science, culture, and critical race theory. Post-imperial amnesia has obscured these legacies, yet they persist in institutions, collections, and public space. This conversation asks how colonial histories continue to structure the present. The panelists reflect on their practices and explore where and how this convenient suppression of responsibility endures even in postcolonial times.
With: Rado Ištok (Curator, National Gallery Prague), Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński (Artist, writer, and researcher), Tayla Myree (Art historian), and Mireille Ngosso (Medical doctor, activist, and SPÖ politician).
Moderated by Laura Amann (AAC)
In English language.
15.15–16.45
THE RIGHT TO HOST?
ON PRACTICES OF HOSPITALITY IN CONTEMPORARY ART INSTITUTIONS
The panel addresses the practices of hospitality in Austrian institutions of contemporary art, where diverse migratory histories converge. What political stance do these practices take? Hospitality, rooted in the shared etymological origins of hospes (host/guest) and hostis (stranger/enemy), is never neutral: it frames the guest as both beneficiary and regulated subject. In contrast to the way many European nation-states–such as Austria itself, for example–fabricate a racist phantasm of the migrant as perpetual guest or someone to be exiled, the panel explores the possibility of migrants becoming hosts, shaping encounters, and defining coexistence. Moving beyond the paternalistic model of “smooth” integration, it considers forms of hospitality that preserve difference–acknowledging opacity and partial untranslatability. Together, we ask how curatorial practices can build a solidarity that begins where this supposed integration ends. The discussion invites us to reflect how far we’ve come in rethinking the ethics of hosting and to articulate our shared desires for what hosting institutions might look like in the future.
With: Aleksei Borisionok (Curator and writer, Vienna), Ramesch Daha (President of Secession and artist, Vienna), Anton Lederer (Curator, Rotor, Graz), Nina Tabassomi (Director and curator, TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck)
Moderated by Andrea Popelka & Jovanka Popova (AAC)
In English language.
16.45–17.30 Wrapping up
By attending the event, you consent to the use and publication of photographs taken during the event to depict the activities of the AAC - Austrian Association of Curators on its website, its social media channels and in print media.
This one-day symposium brings together Austria-based curators and theorists to discuss the ethics and aesthetics of ambiguous orders.
In contemporary art, the notion of giving is more than a metaphor – it structures the relational economies of curating, institution-building, and artistic labour. Yet giving, as a seemingly benevolent act, is entangled in histories of extraction, systems of recognition, and economies of attention. To give, in art, is also to frame, to delimit, and to condition the terms of reception. The question, then, is not only what is given, but how, by whom, and under what institutional conditions.
This symposium asks what forms of giving might still interrupt rather than reinforce dominant systems – what it means to give without subsuming, to host without absorbing, to support without smoothing over contradiction. Can we still offer the aesthetic strategies of humour, irony, or opacity without their immediate assimilation into the attention economy? In a field where funding is tied to legibility and participation is framed as inclusion, curators must keep inventing grammars – ones that make space not only for the unspeakable, but for the unclear, the unoptimized, the unresolved.
The symposium Ambivalent Orders was conceived by the Austrian Association of Curators (AAC) (Mirela Baciak, Freda Fiala, Laura Amann, Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas, Théo-Mario Coppola, Cornelia Lein, Andrea Popelka and Jovanka Popova) and organised in partnership with the MuseumsQuartier Wien, with the kind support of the BMWKMS (Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport).
Participation in the symposium is free of charge. Registration is not required.
15.11.2025
10:00–18:00
Barocke Suiten, MuseumsQuartier
10.00–10.20
Welcome by Bettina Leidl, director of MuseumsQuartier Wien
Welcome remarks & short input by AAC
10.20–11.00
Keynote by Gürsoy Doğtaş
MY MOTHER, THE ‘GUEST WORKER’, AND I—ON CURATING AS A GESTURE OF GIVING BACK
In German Language.
11.00–12.30
GIVING, TAKING, RETURNING, RECLAIMING – ENTANGLEMENTS OF BECOMING IN THE FUTURE MUSEUM
This panel reflects on the tensions between giving and taking, between returning and reclaiming – gestures that reach beyond exchange to form relations, nurture responsibility, and reveal institutions in states of becoming. At its heart lies the idea of the “museum to come” – an institution in transition, yet also an imagined space sustained by resonance and reciprocity. Within this shifting field, the histories of objects, acts of return, and gestures of reclamation unfold as processes through which material origins, symbolic meanings, and shared responsibilities are continuously reimagined and redefined.
With: Claudia Banz (Director, Weltmuseum Wien), Matthias Beitl (Director, Volkskundemuseum Wien), Pia Schölnberger (Head, Commission for Provenance Research, BMKÖS), Vanessa Spanbauer (Curator and Historian)
Moderated by Freda Fiala (AAC)
In German Language
12.30–13.30 Lunch break
13.30–15.00
NOT THAT INNOCENT
AUSTRIA’S COLONIAL COMPLICITIES: ON EMPIRE, AMNESIA AND RESPONSIBILITY
This conversation discusses Austria’s still oft-invoked, though long dispelled, colonial innocence by tracing its entanglements with other imperial powers, racial capitalism, and epistemic violence. Aside from a few short-lived and economically unsuccessful ventures, Austria never realized its fantasies of overseas territory—a fact often misused to exempt it from colonial involvement.
From imperial domination over neighbouring territories under the Habsburgs, to participating in colonial violence through partnerships, and contributing to broader European colonial systems, Austria helped shape, and was shaped by, colonial ideologies in science, culture, and critical race theory. Post-imperial amnesia has obscured these legacies, yet they persist in institutions, collections, and public space. This conversation asks how colonial histories continue to structure the present. The panelists reflect on their practices and explore where and how this convenient suppression of responsibility endures even in postcolonial times.
With: Rado Ištok (Curator, National Gallery Prague), Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński (Artist, writer, and researcher), Tayla Myree (Art historian), and Mireille Ngosso (Medical doctor, activist, and SPÖ politician).
Moderated by Laura Amann (AAC)
In English language.
15.15–16.45
THE RIGHT TO HOST?
ON PRACTICES OF HOSPITALITY IN CONTEMPORARY ART INSTITUTIONS
The panel addresses the practices of hospitality in Austrian institutions of contemporary art, where diverse migratory histories converge. What political stance do these practices take? Hospitality, rooted in the shared etymological origins of hospes (host/guest) and hostis (stranger/enemy), is never neutral: it frames the guest as both beneficiary and regulated subject. In contrast to the way many European nation-states–such as Austria itself, for example–fabricate a racist phantasm of the migrant as perpetual guest or someone to be exiled, the panel explores the possibility of migrants becoming hosts, shaping encounters, and defining coexistence. Moving beyond the paternalistic model of “smooth” integration, it considers forms of hospitality that preserve difference–acknowledging opacity and partial untranslatability. Together, we ask how curatorial practices can build a solidarity that begins where this supposed integration ends. The discussion invites us to reflect how far we’ve come in rethinking the ethics of hosting and to articulate our shared desires for what hosting institutions might look like in the future.
With: Aleksei Borisionok (Curator and writer, Vienna), Ramesch Daha (President of Secession and artist, Vienna), Anton Lederer (Curator, Rotor, Graz), Nina Tabassomi (Director and curator, TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck)
Moderated by Andrea Popelka & Jovanka Popova (AAC)
In English language.
16.45–17.30 Wrapping up
By attending the event, you consent to the use and publication of photographs taken during the event to depict the activities of the AAC - Austrian Association of Curators on its website, its social media channels and in print media.