Herbert Brandl, 2023/26, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2026/2027, large-scale picture
El Anatsui, XOHANAMI, 2025, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2025/2026, large-scale picture
Pipilotti Rist, Abdominal cavity flies over a dam, 2024, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2024/2025, large-scale picture
Anselm Kiefer, Solaris (for Stanislaw Lem), 2023, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2023/2024, large-scale picture
Cao Fei, The New Angel, 2022, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2022/2023, large-scale picture
Beatriz Milhazes, Pink Sunshine, 2021, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2021/2022, large-scale picture
Carrie Mae Weems, Queen B (Mary J. Blige), 2020, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2020/2021, large-scale picture
Martha Jungwirth, The Trojan Horse, 2019, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2019/2020, large scale picture
Pierre Alechinsky, Loin d'ici, 2018, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2018/2019, large-scale picture
John Baldessari, Graduation, 2017, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2017/2018, large-scale picture
Copyright © John Baldessari. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery
Tauba Auerbach, A Flexible Fabric of Inflexible Parts III, 2016, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2016/2017, large scale picture
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Helen & Gordon, 2015, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2015/2016, large scale picture
Joan Jonas, 2014, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2014/2015, large-scale picture
Oswald Oberhuber, 2013, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2013/2014, large-scale picture
David Hockney, 2012, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2012/2013, large-scale picture
Cerith Wyn Evans, 2011, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2011/2012, large-scale picture
Cy Twombly, Bacchus, 2010, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2010/2011, large-scale picture
Franz West, Drei – Vom Vorgang ins Temperament, 2009, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2009/2010, large-scale picture
Rosemarie Trockel, 2008, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2008/2009, large-scale picture
Jeff Koons, Geisha, 2007, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2007/2008, large-scale picture
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Fear Eats the Soul, 2006, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2006/2007, large-scale picture
Maria Lassnig, Breakfast with Ear, 2005, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2005/2006, large-scale picture
Tacita Dean, Play as Cast, 2004, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2004/2005, large scale picture
Thomas Bayrle, 2003, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2003/2004, large scale picture
Giulio Paolini, 2002, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2002/2003, large-scale picture
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Looking Back, 2002, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Komische Oper Berlin, 2002/2003, large scale picture
Richard Hamilton, Retard en Fer – Delay in Iron, 2001, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2001/2002, large-scale picture
Matthew Barney, 2000, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2000/2001, large-scale picture
Christine and Irene Hohenbüchler, 1999, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 1999/2000, large-scale picture
Kara Walker, 1998, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 1998/1999, large scale picture
Curtain – Vorhang, 2017, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, Vienna: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2017, publication
Photo: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress
Curtain – Vorhang, 2017, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, Vienna: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2017, publication
Photo: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress
Cao Fei, The New Angel, 2022, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, C-print, Acrylic glass, Alucubond, edition
Photo: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress
Beatriz Milhazes, Pink Sunshine, 2021, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, lithography, edition
Photo: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress
Carrie Mae Weems, MJB – Reflection, 2017/2020, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Fuiflex on Alucubond, edition
Foto: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress
Tauba Auerbach, Helix Latch, 2016, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, 3D print, hanging sculpture, edition
Photo: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Helen & Gordon, 2015, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, digital pigment print, framed edition
Photo: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress
Joan Jonas, 2014, Safety Curtain, museum in progress, serigraph, edition
Photo: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress
"Safety Curtain" is an exhibition series conceived by museum in progress in cooperation with the Vienna State Opera, which transforms the safety curtain into a temporary exhibition space for contemporary art. For the 29th Safety Curtain, the jury (Daniel Birnbaum, Bice Curiger and Hans-Ulrich Obrist) selected the artist Herbert Brandl.
The exhibition series “Safety Curtain” is a project of museum in progress in cooperation with the Vienna State Opera and the Bundestheater-Holding. Jury: Daniel Birnbaum, Bice Curiger and Hans-Ulrich Obrist. 2026/27 made possible with the generous support of iSi Group. Further support from Hotel Altstadt, ART for ART, Bildrecht, KATE & KON, Prangl and SO/ Vienna. Media partners: Bloomberg Connects, Die Furche and Die Presse.
In 2002/03 museum in progress presented a "Safety Curtain" by the artist duo Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset at the Komische Oper Berlin. Curator: Ina Blom. In 2019 the Safety Curtain "Helen & Gordon" by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (from 2015/16) was newly presented at the Opéra Théâtre de Metz in cooperation with the Centre Pompidou-Metz.
The large-format pictures (Vienna: 176 square metres, Berlin: 90 square metres) are produced and installed using an innovative process: The images are printed on plastic-nets and they are fixed with magnets on the safety curtain.
Editions of some works from the exhibition series "Safety Curtain" have been published at museum in progress, see: mip.at/en/shop.
Production: Trevision; Digital Imaging: Albert Winkler
