Leap Year

with eSeL (Lorenz Seidler), Julia Gaisbacher (in Kollaboration mit Barbi Marković), Lena Rosa Händle, Lavinia Lanner, Rafael Lippuner, Ryts Monet, Hyeji Nam, Yoshinori Niwa,

curated by BLOCKFREI Collective | the new leadership of DAS WEISSE HAUS

The exhibition titled Leap Year marks the introduction of the new era of DAS WEISSE HAUS under the direction of BLOCKFREI Collective. The fact that 2024 is a leap year serves as the starting point for the exploration of the relentlessness and circularity of change as well as the potentialities of reinvention in these precarious times. Could the leap year suggest continuation, expansion, and transformation by leaping forward? Or is the one extra day a glitch, an opportunity to recalibrate, or a necessity for continuation itself?

As a homage to the first 16 years of Kunstverein das weisse haus, all the included artists are closely connected to this self-organized institution. The exhibition invites the audience to a critical confrontation with questions of continuation and disruption, exchange and trade, necessity and greed, growing and letting go. Either literal or figurative, leap is a moment or movement, that irreversible and has consequences. The presented artworks offer reflections on the ambivalence of change from many aspects – as an opportunity, persistence, turmoil, menace, or misfire.

Note on the Curators:

BLOCKFREI Collective, consisting of Nevena Janković, Eva Kovač, and Jana Dolečki, emerged in 2023 from the BLOCKFREI Association for Culture and Communication. The collective was established to assume the leadership of DAS WEISSE HAUS.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Das Weisse Haus, 14 Hegelgasse, Wien, Austria