The Safety Curtain

For the twenty-seventh "Iron Curtain" at the Vienna State Opera, the jury (Daniel Birnbaum, Bice Curiger, and Hans-Ulrich Obrist) selected the extraordinary Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. Her work Belly Cavity Flies Over a Dam will be on display from September 24, 2024, until the end of June 2025, available for audiences to view before and after performances, as well as during intermissions. The "Iron Curtain" is an exhibition series conceived by museum in progress (mip.at) and realized in cooperation with the Vienna State Opera. Since 1998, it has transformed the fire protection wall of the opera house into a display space for contemporary art. The large images (176 m²) are mounted on the fire protection wall using magnets.

The "Iron Curtain" exhibition series is a project by museum in progress in collaboration with the Vienna State Opera and the Bundestheater-Holding. Since 1998, the "Iron Curtains" have been created by the following artists: Kara Walker (1998/99), Christine and Irene Hohenbüchler (1999/2000), Matthew Barney (2000/01), Richard Hamilton (2001/02), Giulio Paolini (2002/03), Elmgreen & Dragset (Komische Oper Berlin, 2002/03), Thomas Bayrle (2003/04), Tacita Dean (2004/05), Maria Lassnig (2005/06), Rirkrit Tiravanija (2006/07), Jeff Koons (2007/08), Rosemarie Trockel (2008/09), Franz West (2009/10), Cy Twombly (2010/11), Cerith Wyn Evans (2011/12), David Hockney (2012/13), Oswald Oberhuber (2013/14), Joan Jonas (2014/15), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (2015/16 and 2019 at the Opéra de Théâtre Metz), Tauba Auerbach (2016/17), John Baldessari (2017/18), Pierre Alechinsky (2018/19), Martha Jungwirth (2019/20), Carrie Mae Weems (2020/21), Beatriz Milhazes (2021/22), Cao Fei (2022/23), and Anselm Kiefer (2023/24).

The 2024/25 "Iron Curtain" by Pipilotti Rist is made possible by: iSi Group and the Sikkens Prize. The artist will receive the Sikkens Prize in October 2024 and is supporting the "Iron Curtain" project by museum in progress with a portion of the prize money. Supporters: ART for ART, Bildrecht, Hotel Altstadt, Johann Kattus, the Swiss Embassy in Austria, and SO/Vienna. Media partners: Die Furche and Die Presse.