Day 89 - Really Traum v Trauma

Though that other exhibit we saw was indeed both dreamy and traumatic, it was not, in fact, the actual Traum v Trauma exhibit. That one, the real one, we visted today. But it wasn´t our first stop.

We stopped first at the Spanish Riding school. Every morning from 10-noon, the Lippenzanner Stallions have their morning workout. The Lippenzanners are internationally known for both their colour - 99% of them are light grey - and their level of training. I am a little horse-obsessed, and Cz patiently sat through an hour of watching their schooling. They were doing some pretty impressive dressage (sort of like equine ballet) moves, but my favourite bits were when they behaved like "real" horses. A few of the stallions were acting up, with ears pinned back and tails swishing, one even considered throwing a little buck or two, and another tried to bolt. It was nice to see that even these highly trained, animals still have a proper independent or rebelious streak (as all good horses should). In between exercises, the stallions walked on a long rein looking curiously and calmly around the arena, receiving frequent pats by their trainors. At the end of each session, the horses lined up, the riders dismounted, and grooms came to collect them. But not before each rider produced at least one, usually several, sugar cubes from a secret pocket of his tailcoat and rewarded his horse with sweets and a pat on the neck.

Then we went to the Traum v Trauma exhibit. It was in the Kunsthalle Wien in the Museums Quartier. The museum has continuosly rotating exhibits from contemporary artists. This exhibition featured rooms filled with images of dreams and nightmares. The closest category for the exhibit from art history, I suppose, would be surreal, but it doesn´t quite fit. The first rooms are entered under a tangled web of red yarn stretched over branching shapes, and tangled around all sorts of objects. Moving through the space felt like a cross between travelling through an Alice in Wonderland spiderweb or the synopses of a brain. We will be stealing the idea.

The rooms after held an assortment of skewed sculptures and strange prints. It almost felt more like a really great (and somewhat perverse) sideshow than an art gallery. In this side of the exhibition hall, my favourite piece was titled "Black Narcisus". A spotlight on a seeming abstract sculpture of painted black dildos and fingers produced a detailed silouette of 2 men´s heads on the wall behind.

Across the courtyard, another series of rooms showed a second work by Tim Noble and Sue Webster (of the dildo sculpture), this time a double self-portrait made by shining light on sculptures made from scrap metal. That they look like their peeing is intentional. It is part social commentary on waste, and part a reference to Renaissance curiosities. In addition to their shadow-sculptures, a large-format work built of nearly 300 baby carraiges and video intallation also occupied the space. The video installation was by South African artist William Ketridge, whose work we had seen in Berlin, and whom I like very much.

The rain stopped while we were in the museum, so we decided to have lunch in the little plaza just outside. Apparently many visitors have this idea, and consequently the sparrows are quite brazen. One even tried to snatch my sandwich from my hand when I wasn´t tossing the seeds from the roll fast enough. Several perched on Cz´s lap, and hopped up into both our hands to be fed.

We were so entertained by the sparrows that we missed the tour of St Michael´s crypt. Instead, we took in an overview of the city on Tram 1, which does a loop around the city center and offers views of many of the important buildings.

After our tramride we went to the furniture museum. The many palaces of the Hapsburg were not furnished yearound. As a result, a specific office developed to arrange the logistics of transporting and maintaining the vast array of furniture needed to support a royal household. When the furniture wasn´t in use, or when fashions changed, it was held in large storerooms. Those storerooms have been recreated here. Only in Vienna does essentially prop storage get to be a museum! In addition to the storerooms, there were rooms set up to represent typical arangements, rooms dedicated to single objects (like spittoons!) and an exhibit of 20th century Viennese furniture.

By the time we finished there, most museums were closing. We considered heading to a cofeeshop, but thought it best to catch up on the blog. We hope you appreciate today´s lack of kuchen. That, and since tomorrow will involve international travel (Vienna to Istanbul to Delhi at 2:30 Thursday morning) and getting our bearings straightened out, we may not be blogging for a few days...then again, India is supposed to be internet saavy.

Anyway, off to a Chinese dinner with D and H and then pack up our bags once again! We will miss the nice little apartment...we felt sooo European.