UPCOMING:
26 February 2026, 17:00
FORUM DANS #11 – NIKOLAUS GANSTERER: SENSING AGENCIES ON SHAKEN GROUNDS
At the Library of the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Nikolaus Gansterer presents his artistic research practice through the current projects Contingent Agencies and Shaken Grounds. Both projects explore non-human forces and examine how artistic practices respond to ecological crisis, instability, and shifting temporalities. Contingent Agencies focuses on atmospheric phenomena and sensitive ecosystems, presented through the short film Sensing Contingent Agencies and its related publication. Shaken Grounds, developed as a research collective, addresses anthropogenic disturbance and seismic processes in the Anthropocene, linking geological and political conditions. The lecture discusses the commonalities and differences between these approaches, positioning the two projects as a productive framework for Gansterer’s wider practice. Drawing, movement, and experimental notation emerge as key methods for engaging with complex forces and relational environments. The event concludes with an open dialogue on artistic research as a situated and performative practice.
9–12 April 2026
PHILOSOPHY ON STAGE #6 – NOTEBOOK OF THE HEART
At the performance art venue brut Wien, the four-day festival Philosophy on Stage #6 – Notebook of the Heart brings together art, research, and philosophy in performances, installations, sound and dance works, lectures, reading circles, bodywork, and a speakers’ corner. The audience is invited to actively participate in a cross-cultural exploration of the heart. Researchers from India, Europe, and North America — working across the fields of art, philosophy, cardiology, and quantum physics — bring their expertise on the pulsating realities of the heart to the stage. The festival creates a shared sense for rhythmically vibrating matter: from the pulse of the human heart, through cosmic heartbeats, to the pulse of the Earth to which all living beings attune themselves. Within the framework of the festival, Artist-performer Nikolaus Gansterer and philosopher Arno Böhler will present a translecture performance. At its core lies an artistic-philosophical investigation of the heart-mind as a field of resonance, perception, and embodied knowledge.
The festival is created by cARE (core Artistic Research Ensemble) in cooperation with brut Wien, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (ARC & mdw), and the University of Vienna. The four year research project „Philosophy in the Arts: Arts in Philosophy – Cross-Cultural Research on the Significance of the Heart“ is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Contributions by Arno Böhler, Susanne Valerie Granzer, Aurelio C. Hammer, Jyoti Dogra, Nikolaus Gansterer, Florian Reiners, Sabina Holzer, Johannes Kretz, Patrick Beldio, Stefan Dobner, Tanja Traxler, Yunus Tuncel, Evi Jägle, Christoph Müller, Debashish Banerji and the Shaken Grounds Collective. Admission is free. Registration required.
15 April – 26 May 2026
SHAKEN GROUNDS: SEISMOGRAPHIES OF PRECARIOUS PRESENCES
The Shaken Grounds research project brings together artists, scientists, and curators to explore how seismic disturbances — natural and anthropogenic — shape perception, bodies, and collective forms of coexistence. Situated at the intersection of artistic research, geology, somatic practice, performance, and filmmaking, the project approaches seismography as a transdisciplinary method for sensing, translating, and relating bodies, technologies, and the Earth under conditions of instability. From 16–30 April 2026, methods and artefacts developed between 2023 and 2026 (within the Austrian Science Fund’s PEEK Programme) will be presented in an experimental laboratory at AIL, accompanied by participatory film shoots, workshops, and talks.
The exhibition officially opens on 4 May 2026 18:00 at AIL Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab Vienna and outlines the first curatorial axes of a larger group exhibition and conference planned for 2027 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb. The project is supported by Creative Europe. With contributions by Valerio Acocella, Bjarki Bragason, Arno Böhler, Alexander Damianisch, Oscar Fernandez Bellon, Helga Franza, Nicolas Freytag, Sabine Folie, Aleksandar Grabovski, Nikolaus Gansterer, Mariella Greil, Jens Hauser, Victor Jaschke, Beatrice Jaschke, Peter Kozek, Anna Líndal, Vesna Meštrić, Werner Moebius, Susanna Ravelli, Sylvia Scheidl, Ana Škegro, Lucie Strecker, Kaloyan Vasev, VestAndPage, etc. More details soon.
ONGOING:
4 December 2025 – 22 March 2026
LICHTUNGEN — Contemporary Drawing Exhibition at Museum im Zeughaus, Innsbruck
This exhibition at Museum im Zeughaus showcases outstanding positions in contemporary drawing, selected from nearly 400 submissions by an international jury of experts. Twelve artists received awards, and additional works were acquired from Marianne Lang, Iris Dittler, Peter Fritzenwallner, Christoph Luger, Thomas Hörl, Nikolaus Gansterer, Ramona Schnekenburger, Annika Eschmann, Barbara Holub, Nico Schleicher, Christian Azzouni, Emma Peinhopf, Linda Artemis Bergstötter, Katharina Biser, Edith Hofer, and Julia Zastava. A richly illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, featuring the awarded drawings and an essay by Klaus Albrecht Schröder, former director of the Albertina Museum Vienna, advocating for an expanded understanding of drawing practices.