© Aino Laberenz
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A joint project of the MAK, the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna, and Gropius Bau / Berliner Festspiele. Artist Christoph Schlingensief (1960–2010) was a radical humanist who demolished the boundaries between art, theater, film, and politics and negotiated the exigencies of the present through his complex artistic practice.
13.5.2026—13.9.2026
Upper Exhibition Hall
His productions challenged his audience to assume an active stance—between irritation and insight, onus, and reflection. With an exhibition eponymous with his 2005 quote It’s not my problem anymore!, the MAK together with the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) is hosting the artist’s first solo show in Austria, the very country he ushered to the center of his social contradictions with his event Bitte liebt Österreich – Erste österreichische Koalitionswoche [Please Love Austria—First Austrian Coalition Week] (2000) in context of the Vienna Festival.
The exhibition unfurls along two timelines stemming from his iconic installation Church of Fear (2003–2005), wherein Schlingensief infused a parodistic faith community with the global post-9/11 mood.
The exhibition unfurls along two timelines stemming from his iconic installation Church of Fear (2003–2005), wherein Schlingensief infused a parodistic faith community with the global post-9/11 mood.
Saturdays: 4 pm (English)
Sundays: 4 pm (German)
On selected dates, special dialogue tours featuring Milo Rau, Susanne Kennedy, Jakob Lena Knebl, and Aino Laberenz will take place.
Sundays: 4 pm (German)
On selected dates, special dialogue tours featuring Milo Rau, Susanne Kennedy, Jakob Lena Knebl, and Aino Laberenz will take place.
Every ticket for the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) grants reduced admission to the MAK for € 10. Get your tickets online at mak.at/en/tickets or at the MAK Ticket Desk. Please bring your Vienna Festival ticket.
© Aino Laberenz
© Aino Laberenz
© Aino Laberenz
© David Baltzer/bildbuehne.de
© David Baltzer/bildbuehne.de
© David Baltzer/bildbuehne.de
© Aino Laberenz
© LSD, photo: Thomas Aurin/Berlin University of the Arts
© David Baltzer/bildbuehne.de
© Stefan Altenburger Photography
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
© kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
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Premiering at the 2003 Venice Biennale, it elevated “belief in fear” to dogma. Two directions develop from this point: backwards to the political and per-formative interventions of the late 1990s and early 2000s (e.g., Chance 2000 and Please love Austria) and forward to his cinematic and operatic works (e.g., The African Twin Towers).
Without being a retrospective in the classical sense, the exhibition brings about a dialogue between central elements of his oeuvre and visualizes how his artistic strategies recipro-cally permeate theater, film, installation, and performance to form a composite image of his way of thinking. Not the completed work, but the movement of questioning, doubting, and failing are at the heart of Schlingensief’s practice: “My view is that one can fail despite desire, passion, and purpose. In my own work, failure inevitably was brought about by the dissolution of straightaway and finish, of space and time. Inner acceptance of failure as a necessary precondition for releasing poten-tial makes a lot happen.”
Guest Curator:
Raphael Gygax in collaboration with Aino Laberenz (Christoph Schlingensief Estate)
Assistant Curator:
Max Appel-Palma

Media Partner

The Vienna Festival would like to thank:
Main Sponsor

Sponsors


Without being a retrospective in the classical sense, the exhibition brings about a dialogue between central elements of his oeuvre and visualizes how his artistic strategies recipro-cally permeate theater, film, installation, and performance to form a composite image of his way of thinking. Not the completed work, but the movement of questioning, doubting, and failing are at the heart of Schlingensief’s practice: “My view is that one can fail despite desire, passion, and purpose. In my own work, failure inevitably was brought about by the dissolution of straightaway and finish, of space and time. Inner acceptance of failure as a necessary precondition for releasing poten-tial makes a lot happen.”
Guest Curator:
Raphael Gygax in collaboration with Aino Laberenz (Christoph Schlingensief Estate)
Assistant Curator:
Max Appel-Palma

Media Partner

The Vienna Festival would like to thank:
Main Sponsor

Sponsors


Media
Christoph Schlingensief, Church of Fear, installation view Utopia Station, 50th Venice Biennale, 2003 © David Baltzer/bildbuehne.de
Christoph Schlingensief, Please Love Austria – First Austrian Coalition Week, 2000 © David Baltzer/bildbuehne.de
Christoph Schlingensief, Please Love Austria – First Austrian Coalition Week, 2000 © David Baltzer/bildbuehne.de
Christoph Schlingensief, Freakstars 3000, Promotionsmaterial, 2002 © LSD, Foto: Thomas Aurin/Akademie der Künste Berlin
Christoph Schlingensief, Untitled (Hasenverwesung; Drosophila Melanogaster; Holländer 2c. Ausweitung der Dunkelphase; Fremdverstümmelung) [Rabbit Decay; Drosophila Melanogaster; Dutchman 2c: Extension of the Dark Phase; Mutilation of the Other], 2007 © Stefan Altenburger Photography
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, Church of Fear, 2003 © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, Church of Fear, 2003 © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, The African Twin Towers, 2005/2007 © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, Freakstars 3000 (2002) © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, Freakstars 3000 (2002) © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, Please Love Austria – First Austrian Coalition Week (2000) © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, Please Love Austria – First Austrian Coalition Week (2000) © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, Chance 2000 – Party of the Last Chance (1998) © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF: It’s Not My Problem Anymore! Christoph Schlingensief, Chance 2000 – Party of the Last Chance (1998) © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK