About us
Mission Statement
With the establishing of the Generali Foundation in 1988, Generali Versicherung AG has been committed to cultural and social responsibility in an internationally outstanding manner for more than three decades. In its exhibitions, the Generali Foundation consequently addresses controversial socio-political topics and has established itself as a forum for artists who promote critical discourse. This debate is reflected in the collection policy, research and publication activities. In doing so, the Generali Foundation pursues the classic tasks of a museum: exhibiting, collecting, preserving and communicating art and culture.
Exhibiting
Every year, four to five exhibitions from the Generali Foundation Collection are shown in the exhibition rooms of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg (Mönchsberg) and study and archive exhibitions in the Generali Foundation Study Center at the Altstadt site (Rupertinum), accompanied by events such as lectures, talks and performances.
The program actively refers to the collection. Works from the collection are continually re-contextualized in exhibitions and, conversely, exhibitions are conceived with works whose acquisition is of interest to the collection in mind. The exhibitions are based on extensive research and are an important tool for the further development of the collection.
Collecting
The collection currently consists of about 2100 works by 312 international artists. The holdings range from the mid-1950s (e.g. Gerhard Rühm) to the recent past. Characteristic of the Generali Foundation Collection is its openness to the understanding of an expanded concept of sculpture. The expanded concept of sculpture corresponds to the process-oriented understanding of art as social space that emerged in the 1960s and includes interdisciplinary investigations of interfaces with architecture, design, dance, literature, and music, as well as critical revisions of modernism and postmodernism. Overcoming classical definitions of genre is central to the collection. The collection combines novel sculptures and works on paper with photography, film, video, object art, early computer and media artworks, and multimedia installations. Accordingly, the spectrum of artworks is heterogeneous and corresponds to the broad range of forms of expression that, since the 1960s, interpreted the transgression of traditional genre boundaries in social terms and, as an artistic method, ultimately declared it a political position. Individual outstanding artists' positions, entire blocks of works, and generally unconventional art that is sociopolitical, critical of institutions, conceptual, feminist, performative, interactive, and participatory are acquired in a focussed manner.
Works are also sometimes commissioned especially for the collection. One of the best-known examples is "New Design for Showing Videos" (1995) by Dan Graham, an architectural structure of wooden frames, perforated aluminum, and partially semi-transparent glass that serves as a place for viewing videos from the Generali Foundation's video collection, where unexpected visual and physical experiences can be lived simultaneously. This is in accordance with Graham's central theme of the reciprocal relationship between his art and viewers, inside and outside, and his engagement with minimalism, architecture, rock music, film, photography, and performance. Other examples of collaborative productions include the video installation "I Thought I Was Seeing Convicts" (2000) by Harun Farocki, "Arizona Road" (2002) by Azra Aksamija, "Rural Studio: The Butterfly House" (2002) by Marjetica Potrč, and "Déconnage" (2011) by Angela Melitopoulos and Maurizio Lazzarato.
With its special commitment to artists who are highly regarded in professional circles but still little known to the general public, the Generali Foundation has been able to establish its high international reputation through an uncompromising exhibition program and an acquisition policy that benefits from it, wherein the promotion of the artistic work of women is a central concern.
Preservation
Building up and, above all, preserving a collection of contemporary art brings with it a variety of challenges. The Generali Foundation has undertaken the restoration of a number of important holdings in addition to their scientific study. These include the drawings and films of Gordon Matta-Clark and the "Expanded Cinema" group of works by VALIE EXPORT, as well as the group of Prototypes from the 1960s by Walter Pichler and a number of early video works from Austria and Central Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, the collection includes a large body of early media art (so-called time-based-media works), including film, video, light image installations, and programming of computer works. In recent years, individual strategies and solutions have been worked out with the artists of works that include technical devices as visible components of the work, in line with the respective artistic intention, in order to ensure medium- and long-term presentation. With this step, the Generali Foundation once again demonstrates its appreciation of the artists and takes active social responsibility for the preservation of outstanding works of art and contemporary documents.
Research, mediation, publishing
In the preparation of exhibitions and in connection with relevant topics of the collection, basic research is conducted and the scientific examination and documentation of the holdings is carried out. Publication activities contribute to the writing of art history. Some of the Generali Foundation's publications are now considered standard works and have become trend-setting. The focus is set on ambitious projects on topics of contemporary art and the first publication of writings by artists, as well as on the processing of so far unexamined material.
Parallel to these activities, the Generali Foundation has systematically built up an archive and a library, which, together with the extensive media library (comprising around 500 films and videos by the artists in the collection and, to date, around 300 accompanying events from the "Viennese period"), are open to the public in the Generali Foundation Study Center at the Altstadt location (Rupertinum).
About us
The Generali Foundation was founded in 1988 as a non-profit art association of the Generali Group Austria for the promotion of contemporary visual arts, based in Vienna.
History
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Today
The Generali Foundation Collection of the Generali Group Austria, with around 2100 works by 312 renowned artists, is one of the most important private corporate collections internationally and is being continuously expanded. The institution and all its activities are 100% privately financed. The Generali Foundation is thus an international example of Generali Versicherung AG's commitment to the active perception of "Cultural and Social Responsibility" (CCR).
For more than 36 years, the exhibition program, the accompanying events and the publications of the Generali Foundation have been characterized by research activities and the engagement with the critical discourses of the respective present. The consistent attitude of always taking up relevant artistic, art-theoretical and socio-political aspects and presenting them to a broad audience forms the fruitful basis for the collection activities pursued since the establishment. Over the years, the Generali Foundation has developed into a consistent institution that is nationally and internationally known and recognized in the field of art and culture and is is highly respected.
On January 1, 2023, Harald Krejči became director of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg and took over the artistic direction of the Generali Foundation.
2014
Since spring 2014, the Generali Foundation Collection has been entrusted to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg as a permanent loan. The Vienna location was closed at the end of 2014. Within the framework of a constructive and successful cooperation, which means mutual enrichment, works of art from the collection are continuously shown in exhibitions in Salzburg, presented worldwide as loans and made accessible to a broad and international audience.
Sabine Breitwieser deepened the Generali Foundation Collection during her directorship at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg (2013 09 until 2018 08), focusing its expansion on essential feminist, performative, and conceptual positions in contemporary art since the 1970s.
Under the direction of Thorsten Sadowsky at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg (2018 09 until 2022 09), the previously isolated inclusion of non-European perspectives was increasingly taken into account and the collection was continuously expanded and enriched in its diversity of perspectives, among others by notable representatives of the People of Color.
1995
In March 1995, the Foundation moved into the Habighof, a former hat factory at Wiedner Hauptstrasse 15, Vienna 4. The young architect duo Christian Jabornegg and András Pálffy adapted the historic building from the beginning of the 20th century on the basis of a sensitive approach to the formal language of modernism to create new premises for the Foundation: exhibition hall, storage facilities, study room and offices for the administration. The architectural solution for the Generali Foundation's site in Vienna was considered by experts to be an outstanding example of the successful redesign of a backyard architecture. The project received international recognition. The architects are highly renowned today.
https://jabornegg-palffy.at/
A growing interest in international art movements, above all in the North American art scene from the 1960s onward, served to contextualize local developments. The exploration of cross connections was reflected in the consistent programming of the exhibitions. This led to a stepwise expansion of the collection to include international positions, which initially concentrated on a Western-influenced canon and was subsequently extended to include artistic positions from the former CEE countries. As early as 2000, representatives of People of Color and non-European artists were shown in exhibitions that addressed racism and postcolonial aspects and were included in the collection.
Sabine Breitwieser, directed the institution from 1988 to 2007, Sabine Folie from 2008 to March 2014. From 2008 to 2009, the house in Wiedner Hauptstraße was shared by the BAWAG Foundation for artistic projects for economic reasons. From 2010 to 2014, the Generali Foundation again occupied the premises alone.
1988
Dietrich Karner took over the management of the Vienna Generali Group in 1986 and initiated the establishment of the Generali Foundation in 1988 as a non-profit art association for the promotion of contemporary art and culture. Edelbert Köb conceived the first collection strategy. The initial focus was on sculpture after 1945, generally on "color on paper" and on Austrian art. Under Sabine Breitwieser, the first site-specific presentations of Austrian artists took place in a small exhibition room at Bauernmarkt 12, Vienna 1, which also served as an office for a three-person team. Breitwieser oriented her program to the new understanding of sculpture after 1945.
Inventory number one of the collection features a work by Bruno Gironcoli. It represents a break with the traditional "Wotruba School" and an "expanded conception" of the notion of sculpture. From 1989 onwards, publications began to be issued for the Generali Foundation.