"Such is the unshakable reputation of the Austrian capital-an eternal fortress of classical music, imperial architecture, and chocolate cake. When Gustav Mahler (supposedly) delivered this quote at the turn of the twentieth century, Vienna was careening into an uncertain future, a Baroque relic staring down the onslaught of modernity. While I was visiting the city for the sixteenth edition of the Curated By festival, the adage felt inaccurate. Vienna was more extratemporal than anachronistic-not behind the times, but outside of them completely."
"Each year, twenty-four Viennese galleries invite international curators to organize exhibitions in their spaces, with all responding to a central theme set by the festival. Reflecting on our era of polycrisis and slop-psychosis, the 2025 edition, "Fragmented Subjectivity," took both title and inspiration from the postmodern theories of Fredric Jameson. In a commissioned essay expounding on the choice, art historian Sophia Roxane Rohwetter invokes the contemporary subject's fractured understanding of self, distracted interaction with the world, and "insecurity about one's place during periodic innovation.""
"Art, according to Rohwetter, offers a refuge to explore the negative manifestations of "fragmentation and alienation," revealing pathways toward connection and clarity in a "time of disaster." The theme felt a little incongruous: postmodern subjectivity in a long-outmoded metropole. Participating galleries adopted the concept loosely, reserving the right to reject or amend its presuppositions as needed. Two hazily defined camps emerged:"
The Curated By festival in Vienna invited twenty-four galleries to host international curators who responded to a central 2025 theme, "Fragmented Subjectivity." The theme drew on Fredric Jameson's postmodern theories and emphasized fractured selfhood, distracted engagement, and insecurity during rapid innovation. Sophia Roxane Rohwetter's commissioned essay foregrounded art as a refuge to examine fragmentation and alienation and to seek connection and clarity amid crisis. The festival's setting in Vienna felt extratemporal, contrasting the contemporary theory with the city's historical character. Galleries adopted the theme variably, splitting into camps that either presented coherent curatorial projects or embraced disjunction and associative networks.
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