I had an opportunity to go to this exhibition with a friend of mine, an Austrian neighbour and also a student of design who actually suggested me this one as it was about work by Olafur Elliason. I had no clue prior to exhibition about this artist so it was a better experience not go alone but with a person who was already familiar with the content of the exhibition. We decided to go together there on January 5 when it was the holiday (Holy Three Kings) so Wednesday was a little break from the workplace (though for me in one of the most stressing weeks).
We took the tram number 2 to get to Karlsplatz and then walked a little bit before finding it. Thus I'd share some information with.
How to reach Belvedere Winter Palace?
It is located in Himmelpfortgasse 8 in the 1st District. It is pretty close to Stephansplatz and Karlsplatz (with Opera), approximately in the middle. There you have then several options to reach it:
- use U-Bahn U1 and leave at 'Stephansplatz' or 'Karlsplatz' station
- use U-Bahn U2 to leave at 'Karlsplatz' station
- use U-Bahn U3 and leave at 'Stubentor' then you will have 2-3 minutes more to walk than from Stephansplatz
- use trams D, 2 and 71 and leave at the station 'Schwarzenbergeplatz'
- there is a bus 2A where you leave at the station 'Plankengasse'
Opening hours
It is open daily from 10 a. m. to 6 p. m. and on the holidays until 5 p. m.
Entrance ticket
All Belvedere museums are very expensive and I was afraid of the potential price here. Luckily, just for this exhibition it was 7 Euro as a student price (under 26). I cannot find this information on their website but normally the prices for the exhibitions there are at least 20 Euros!
There is also a cloakroom which costs 0, 50 Euro.
The entrance to the Cashier will turn you into a gray statue
This was actually one of my favourite parts at the museum. Once you enter the doors of the building you will enter kind of a hall which leads to another one with stairs. And there the magic happens!
As you were climbing up the left or the right stairs you noticed the other people looking pretty greyish, like grayscale effect in Photoshop, and the space around was yellow. Then you think you must have been having a headache as everything looks pretty yellow and your hands and body was gray! There is also a photo of me under this light (without any filters) so check it below!
What was the exhibition about?
We had the opportunity to see the exhibition of both Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Elliason who did some marvellous job with the effect of glass and perspective. Please check the photographs. And all of that in combination with other sculptures from Baroque.
There were several rooms filled with the those sculptures from Elliason where the visitors could put their face at the end of, for instance, the long "tunnel" filled with lots of geometric glass and then get some cool effects. I used to take pictures with my friend and you can check them below.
In a huge room or a hall there was a projector on the floor which made kind of a fake 3D effect with red and blue shadows. This was pretty popular by children who were jumping and dancing around and had gigantic shadows in several colours on the blank wall.
The huge paintings on the walls and golden ceiling
This had nothing to do with the artist who had this exhibition here but I liked a lot as well. These were the paintings probably painted 100-200 years ago and were depicting the battle of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with the Ottomans. The paintings were as big as the walls and were of course commissioned especially of it the size of the rooms. What I liked was to see what the area looked like before and enjoy billions of little details. I do not know how long it took them for just one but I guess it could not be done within one night. Of course, not all of them were that big, some rooms had several pictures on the same wall.
There was also the portrait of the Emperor Franz Joseph once you leave the exhibition. He is watching you.
What you will instantly notice when you enter the exhibition - the halls - that everything around you is in gold. The walls as well but the ceiling especially screams in gold. This all of course is one of the symbols of baroque style, something were we would use the word 'kitchy', a bit too much of decorations and showing the power and wealth.
We might have spent about 30-40 minutes there as it was not that big and then headed somewhere for the coffee.
In general, it was interesting. Maybe I expected a bit more but it was okay. I loved some of the effects with the glass and material, as well as enjoying the paintings of the military scenes... but I guess my industrial designer colleague enjoy this much more as she knew what to see and it is closer to her profession. Then I knew how the others felt when they had to go with me to check the graphic design exhibitions but they had not much in common with them.
What to see Vienna,
Vienna,
Austria
