Kunstmoschee [Art-Mosque]
Participatory project in public space, wooden carpets (2007)
Commissioned by the Secession Vienna, AT
The KUNSTMOSCHEE is an interactive installation that was temporarily located on the external grounds of the Secession at Vienna from July 20th through September 30th, 2007. The project explores the interrelationships between architectural, territorial, and visual manifestations of religion and pluralism in Western Europe. KUNSTMOSCHEE is an attempt to create a hybrid of the religious and the secular space. This architectonic rug-landscape consists of 120 individual modules that together create an ornamental pattern. While the rugs can be used for daily prayer, they also provide a platform for socializing and cultural events. KUNSTMOSCHEE events include lectures, discussions, a carpet-weaving workshop, and screenings of contemporary Iranian films, in order to question cultural biases and focus on cultural diversity through play and sensory engagement. KUNSTMOSCHEE becomes thus a space for gathering and communication between visitors with different cultural needs.
The rugs for this installation were created by supervised groups of over forty Viennese from various age groups who were invited to participate in carpet-weaving workshops, with a premium placed on their diverse professional, religious, or cultural backgrounds as well as personal interests. The individual rugs were distributed among their makers and the program participants at the closing ceremony of the exhibition, disseminating the project to a demographic sample of the Viennese.
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Project commissioned by the Secession Vienna for the outdoor exhibition, curated by Barbara Holub and Anna Mayer.
Materials: 120 carpets made of wooden triangles, paint, used ski-poles, rubber ropes, cable binders, screenings, readings, panel discussion, social gatherings
Dimensions: 1 carpet: 80 x 120 x 1 cm; ski-poles: 120 cm
Concept, design, and artistic direction: Azra Akšamija
Research and development: Adelheid Pretterhofer (architecture), Christina Nägele (outreach)
Production: Adelheid Pretterhofer (architecture, production), Christina Nägele (project manager), 60 citizens of Vienna (participatory carpet creation)
Sponsoring: Secession, Vienna; Kodak Austria (material sponsoring); with a partial support by the Council for the Arts at MIT
Also see: Azra Akšamija, Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence. Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2015.