X FRAMES PER SPACE

What does it mean to frame the world? And how do scientific insights and artistic perspectives shape the way we understand reality?

The exhibition X FRAMES PER SPACE – different logics, shared questions explored these questions through multi-layered parcours of art, science, and technology.

As the final major exhibition hosted in the former building of Vienna’s University of Economics, the exhibition brought together around one hundred artistic and scientific contributions for Vienna Art Week 2025. Curated by Annette Tesarek, Melina Steiner, and Sebastian Pfeifhofer, it examined the conditions that shape human perception and created a complex system of relations – like a mycelial network in which art and science not only meet but actively nourish one another.

Alongside multidisciplinary works, the exhibition also featured contributions from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine, founded in 2024, whose team brings together experts from biology, medicine, physics, mathematics, architecture and art. Across 1.200 square meters, visitors encountered a layered sequence of painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, digital art, robotics, AI, science fiction, binary systems, framing, health and research.

Even beyond the exhibition's closing, its insights continue to resonate and the networks it sparked between artists and scientists remain active. The examination of how scientific data and artistic production interact have opened up new pathways for future connections.

X FRAMES PER SPACE • DIFFERENT LOGICS - SHARED QUESTIONS

ORGANIZERS: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine & Vienna Contemporary Art Space

IN COOPERATION WITH: Open Innovation in Science Center of the Ludwig Boltzmann Society, WEST/ Alte WU, Alsergrund district, and Vienna Art Week 2025

CURATORS: Annette Tesarek, Melina Steiner, Sebastian Pfeifhofer

CO-CURATORS: Christiane Hütter, Norbert Unfug, Andreas Schlichtner

Andreas Schlichtner, Melina Steiner, Sebastian Pfeifhofer, Annette Tesarek, Christiane Hütter, Jörg Menche (Director Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine), Norbert Unfug (LTR), Foto: © Sophie Menegaldo | Ivory Rose Photography

Participating artists and scientists:

Angela Andorrer, Ernesto Abila, Michael Artner, Manuel Cyrill Bachinger, Danijela Bagarić, Mina Banabak, Albert-László Barabási, Ziegi Boss, R. Friedrich Bliem, Paulina Blome, Katy Börner, Chloé Bûcheron, Iva Buljan, Patryck Chan, Parijat Chakraborty, descent, Zoé Dézsi, Die Aschenbrecher, Tomiris Dmitrievskikh, Annika Eschmann, ECHTZEITKUNSTWELT, Thomas Feuerstein, Joel Fischer, Jonas Fliedl, Rica Fuentes Martinez, freakygreenfish, Funkyfiona, Maissa Gamea, Barbara Geist, Ines Gerard-Ursin, Felice Gotthardt, Lisa Glonti, Marlene Grabner, Alexander Grentner, Dominik Grünbühel, Maria Gvardeitseva, Begi Guggenheim, Julia Guthrie, Arndt von Haeseler, Julia Hahnl, Jack Heseltine, Hollis Hui, Christiane Hütter, Julian Jankovic, OU Jiun-You, June Kitho, Anthony Kroytor, Martin Krammer, Nadine Lemke, Sanja Lasić, Meike Legler, Monica LoCascio, Mary Maggic, Daniel Malzl, Vanessa Mazanik, Daniel Mazanik, Mathieu Mahve-Beydokhti, Edina Marica, Jörg Menche, Oliver R. Meschnig, Mathilde Meyenberg, Ernst Miesgang, Peter Moosgaard, Stella Mondin, Felix Müller, Cristian Nogales, Iker Núñez-Carpintero, Oskerhase, Michel Owusu, Thomas Palfinger, Sebastian Pfeifhofer, Monika Pietrzak-Franger, Sebastian Pirch, projectvime & Te En Chen, Aryan Rahbari, André Rendeiro, Peter Ruppert, Georg Russegger, Luca Ruzsics, Enes Sakalli, Laurie Schram, Chris Schratt, Simon Schindler, Bettina Schülke, Varun Sharma, Sarah Steiner, Melina Steiner, Clemens Stecher, Celine Sin, Dora Siafla, Shrestha Srivastava, Zhasmina Stoyanova, Annette Tesarek, T(n)C, The Meaningful Noise Collective, Daniela Trinkl, DJ TPIPLE A, Lukas Troyer, Norbert Unfug, Oleg Ustinov, Ana Vollwesen, Péter Velősy, Sarah Wilhelmy, Alexander Zaloopin, Aga Zagraba, Q_plus_I, STUDIO 101010.

Sebastian Pirch, Norbert Unfug, and Annette Tesarek, The PILE OF TRASH X SPACE ORACLE, 2024/2025, Foto: © Sophie Menegaldo | Ivory Rose Photography

Lucas Gehrmann on the project

Gehrmann is an independent curator and author, this text was translated from German

A “Fractococcic Essence Blade”¹ hangs, like a Damoclean sword in full regalia, from the ceiling structure of the large exhibition hall of the former Vienna University of Economics and Business, recently approved for demolition. It is surrounded by other images and objects that articulate themselves in a bizarre–surreal manner, such as the interactive media installation “The PILE OF TRASH”², in front of which two performers draped in black capes encourage the audience—using AI-generated phrases like “dark times have come / listen to your inner child / find peace”—to consume hollow wafer cookies.³

The exhibition offers numerous impulses in this direction, carried by a fortunate combination of playful imagination and epistemological depth.

Exhibition view: Patryck Chan, Daniel Mazanik, Funkyfiona , Martin Krammer, Oskerhase, Begi Guggenheim, Monika Pietrzak-Franger, Die Aschenbrecher, Felice Gotthardt, Bettina Schülke, Julian Jankovic, (LTR), Foto: © Sophie Menegaldo | Ivory Rose Photography

We encounter this duality of end-time visions and glimpses into better, more peaceful worlds in the exhibition through juxtapositions of works based on the visualization of statistically collected or at least verifiable and measurable data and phenomena. The embroidery-like “Social Network Response to Crisis” ⁴, for instance, depicts the differing trajectories of mobile phone data during and after accidents, while “The Atlas of Macroscopes” offers useful overviews of complex systems and networks.⁵
Microscopically small life forms, on the other hand, can be examined in the watercolor series “Modular Mix” ⁶ and experienced in tangible form in the interactive installation “Microbiom”.⁷ As essential components of larger systems, microorganisms are crucial for all life on Earth. Some of them can even produce (bio-)plastics—here, for example, the polyester PHB generated by bacteria was used to create the object “MAGGOT”.⁸

The realization—repeatedly brought to the surface in the exhibition—that, as the artist Funkyfiona puts it, *“everything is alive, constantly changing, and in relation to one another”*⁹ allows lights to flicker at the end of the tunnel even in dark times. With regard to the project title “X FRAMES PER SPACE – DIFFERENT LOGICS, SHARED QUESTIONS”: “Different Logics” can trigger shifts in our perspectives, which are usually limited by rigid frames and rules, thus expanding both external and internal perception. The exhibition offers numerous impulses in this direction, carried by a fortunate combination of playful imagination and epistemological depth.

References:

by Oskerhase, from “HETEROTOPIA POST APOCALYPTICA”
Sebastian Pirch, Norbert Unfug, and Annette Tesarek, “The PILE OF TRASH X SPACE ORACLE”
Annette Tesarek, “Dark Performance”
Albert-László Barabási, “Social Network Response to Crisis”
Katy Börner, “The Atlas of Macroscopes”
Rica Fuentes Martinez, “Modular Mix”
Stella Mondin and Luca Ruzsics, “Microbiom”
Thomas Feuerstein, from the series “METABOLICA”
Funkyfiona, “Meraki”