El Anatsui, XOHANAMI, 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2025/2026, large-scale picture
El Anatsui, XOHANAMI, 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2025/2026, large-scale picture
El Anatsui in front of XOHANAMI, 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2025/2026, large-scale picture
Photo: Richard Tanzer, Copyright: museum in progress
El Anatsui in front of XOHANAMI, 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2025/2026, large-scale picture
Photo: Richard Tanzer, Copyright: museum in progress
El Anatsui in front of XOHANAMI, 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2025/2026, large-scale picture
Photo: Richard Tanzer, Copyright: museum in progress
El Anatsui in front of XOHANAMI, 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2025/2026, large-scale picture
Photo: Richard Tanzer, Copyright: museum in progress
El Anatsui, XOHANAMI, 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2025/2026, large-scale picture
El Anatsui, XOHANAMI (Detail 1), 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Die Furche, 25-09-2025, newspaper multiple
El Anatsui, XOHANAMI (Detail 2), 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Die Presse, 30-09-2025, newspaper multiple
El Anatsui, XOHANAMI – Male / Female, 2026, wood prints, museum in progress, edition
El Anatsui, XOHANAMI – Head, 2026, wood prints, museum in progress, edition
For the twenty-eighth "Safety Curtain" at the Wiener Staatsoper, the jury (Daniel Birnbaum, Bice Curiger and Hans Ulrich Obrist) selected the artist El Anatsui. His work "XOHANAMI" can be seen by the audience from 30 September 2025 until the end of June 2026 before the start of the performances, during the intermissions and at the end of the performances. Anatsui’s title "XOHANAMI" is Ewe for "Receive our Song", making contact between the local audience and the artist’s own cultural roots.
This year’s Safety Curtain project and the ongoing work of the non-profit organisation museum in progress have been generously supported by El Anatsui through the creation of three limited edition artworks. These lifesize wood prints have been developed by the artist from two individual wooden figures from the sculptural installation on which XOHANAMI is based, at the printing studio of Chavanne & Pechmann in Apetlon. Further information is available at www.mip.at/en/shop/xohanami.
The "Safety Curtain" 2025/26 by El Anatsui is made possible by iSi Group, with the additional support of Goodman Gallery. Further support: Hotel Altstadt, ART for ART, Bildrecht, Embassy of Ghana in Vienna, Schloss Gobelsburg and SO/ Vienna. Media partners: Bloomberg Connects, Die Furche and Die Presse.
