Review of 'Seeds' at Kunsthaus Wien | Berlin Art Link

Vienna’s Klima Biennale opened in April under the theme “Unspeakable Worlds,” featuring exhibitions and events across the city. The program frames the climate crisis as complex and positions art, science, and society together to test new perspectives toward a viable future, emphasizing that art can create spaces when language reaches its limits. The main attraction is the group show “Seeds. Reclaiming Roots, Sowing Futures” at Kunsthaus Wien, featuring works by 14 international artists. Seeding and germination appear as recurring metaphors in contemporary exhibitions, including a Venice Biennale library project that connects visitors to theoretical and political inspirations. The focus includes both varied media and differing levels of didacticism, with attention to poetic approaches to climate realities rather than activism, data, and metrics.

"Vienna's Klima Biennale opened this April under the theme 'Unspeakable Worlds,' with a host of exhibitions and events across the city. Examining the complexity of the climate crisis, the Biennale positions itself as a platform for art, science and society to try out new perspectives for a viable future: "When language reaches its limits, art opens new spaces.""

"At its hub, the Kunsthaus Wien—an eccentric building designed by Austrian artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a self-proclaimed "opponent of a straight line"—the group show 'Seeds. Reclaiming Roots, Sowing Futures' acts as the Biennale's main attraction, featuring works by 14 international artists."

"Lately, seeding and germination have proliferated as artistic metaphors in contemporary art exhibitions. At the recently-opened 2026 Venice Biennale, for example, the "Book Pavilion" outside the main exhibition in the Giardini hosts 'Ideal Seeds for Fertile Grounds'—a library project by Dakar's RAW Material Company. In it, the texts that inspired Koyo Kouoh's curatorial thinking are available for visitors to read, deepening their connection to the theoretical and political inspirations behind the exhibition."

"While the works by the 14 artists at Kunsthaus Wien span a wide variety of media and different levels of didacticism, I am personally more drawn to the poetic contributions to the show—those that truly access the "unspeakable" qualities of the climate crisis, rather than displaying them on the level of environmental activism, data and metrics."

Read at Berlin Art Link