Belvedere21: On the New – Viennese Scenes and Beyond

We are happy to announce that Queer Museum Vienna is participating in the exhibition project „Über das Neue“ and curating a space within the second part of the Exhibition, showing works by Masha Godovannaya, Soohoon Lee, Marija Šabanović and Ciwan Veysel

Belvedere21: On the New – Viennese Scenes and Beyond

Opening: 26. 5. 2023 19h

26.5.-2.7.2023

Belvedere 21 „On the New
Viennese Scenes and Beyond“

We are happy to announce that Queer Museum Vienna is participating in the exhibition project „Über das Neue“ and curating a space within the second part of the Exhibition, showing works by Masha Godovannaya, Soohoon Lee, Marija Šabanović and Ciwan Veysel

„On the New – Viennese Scenes and Beyond“ is a large scale exhibition project showing works by 45 artists as well as smaller exhibitions within the exhibition curated by 24 art spaces in a dynamic and variable setting. The spaces change various times during the project. It poses questions about what art can be today, which topics and esthetics are discussed and how contemporary art is perceived. The exhibition is curated collectively by a curatorial team (Christiane Erharter, Andrea Kopranovic, Ana Petrović, Claudia Slanar, Luisa Ziaja). This is based on the ambitious attempt to show as many perspectives on the multitudes of art production in Austria today. The exhibition is seen as a growing structure rather than an overview, which corresponds with the title „On the New“, as what we perceive as „the New“ today might be already outdated tomorrow. This is represented in the constant changes of the exhibition space and the exhibited works during the duration of the project. 

Artists represented by the Queer Museum Vienna within the exhibition:

Marija Šabanović, „Mirrors“

Marija Šabanović was born in Niš, Serbia, where she completed her architecture degree. While still in high school, Marija was involved in anti-war activism, and during her studies, she joined a local initiative dealing with the rights and visibility of the LGBTIQ people in southern Serbia. Marija has been living in Vienna since 2012 and is currently studying photography at Die Graphische.Mirrors focuses on bodies and reflections.

„My need to work on the topic such as body stems from the understanding that many issues, social or personal, carry the body at their core. Whether we are talking about physical or mental health, or about global politics, we cannot bypass the question of the body. The body is, therefore, probably one of the most important positioning factors in the social hierarchy. 

When we stand in front of a mirror, the reflection we see is a very significant feedback that we get in a split second. This information is not easy for everyone to deal with, and I believe it is because society has made some bodies more vulnerable than others. Society is putting us under pressure by teaching us about the way we should look from a very young age. These expectations put people of different ages, genders, sexualities, and cultures in the position to be discriminated against and bullied. It affects their mental and physical health on a daily basis.“

Soohoon Lee, „Positive Cucumber/ Negative Cucumber“

Soohoon Lee is a Korean artist. He studies in the Class of the Graphic Arts and
Printmaking Techniques at the Academy of fine arts Vienna. He mainly works with
painting, and drawing. In his works there are created characters and stories within
his own universe that he creates. In his universe the works are organically
connected and they are developed such as certain scenes from a movie or a
cartoon. Besides, the emotions that he feels from the environments/surroundings
to his identity are embedded in the works. For increasing the accuracy of images
which he seeks and pursues, he combines painting with other different media
to show as various visual languages.  

Ciwan Veysel, „Breath“

Ciwan Veysel is Turkey-born queer visual artist who lives and works in Austria. Through the connection between art and identity, the artist’s production deals with identity issues such as immigration, queer struggle and visibility, queer body politics, the dynamics of self-discovery, and the Kurdish identity issues.  

The “Breath” series accompanies the systematic patriarchal violence against our queer bodies, toxic masculinity, state violence, boundaries, inner healing and the journey of unconditional breathing with our bodies through the dynamics of personal experience.

Masha Godovannaya „Countryless and Queer“

Masha Godovannaya is a visual artist, experimental filmmaker, and queer-feminist researcher.  Approaching art production as artistic research and collective action, Masha’s artistic and scholarly practices draw on combinations of approaches and spheres such as moving image theory, experimental cinema and DIY video tradition, qualitative social science, queer theory, decolonial methodologies, and contemporary art. 

Masha holds an MFA degree in Film/Video from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, New York, and MA in Sociology from European University in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Currently, she is a candidate in PhD in Practice at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria.

The multichannel project “Countryless and Queer ” captures traces of queer existence and intimate arrangements lived by non-privileged queers who navigate their experiences of migration in the city of Vienna. It unfolds narratives of five queer migrants from contexts outside of the Global North which have been marked by gender violence, homophobia, economic instability, and social misbalance. Beyond narratives of damage, marginality is lived through and treated in the film as a space for emancipation and resistance – full of humor and joy, dignity and erotic, emancipation and struggle. 

Belvedere21  

Arsenalstraße 1,

1030 Wien

Erreichbar mit 

Bahn & S-Bahn, Straßenbahn D, 18, O
Station „Quartier Belvedere“
Bus 69A
Station„Arsenal“