VIENNAFAIR was Austria’s biggest annual fair for contemporary art from 2005 to 2014. In 2014, its key organizers, the managing director Renger van den Heuvel and the artistic director Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt, left the team to start viennacontemporary, a new contemporary art fair that essentially became the successor of VIENNAFAIR.
According to the organizers, viennacontemporary was created to expand the trading abilities of the local art galleries, as well as to establish Vienna as a modern contemporary art center. As a result, the program of the fair includes a number of different events. Alongside the fair itself and various art exhibitions, there are panel discussions, excursions, interviews with artists, performances, etc.
More than 100 art galleries from 25 countries participate in viennacontemporary every year. Alongside the main event, there is a series of supporting events held in cooperation with Austrian art institutions. A new theme is chosen every year, so each and every edition of the fair is unique. Art directors of the fair have included Edek Bartz, Hedwig Saxenhuber, Georg Schöllhammer, Christina Steinbrecher, Vita Zaman, and others.
viennacontemporary is mainly focused on art from the countries of Central Europe, however, over the last years the concept has expanded to include Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Collecting has always been one of the fair’s key priorities. Numerous collectors from different countries come to Vienna to find new and worthy works of contemporary art. They also participate in a collectors’ forum that runs concurrently with the fair.
viennacontemporary is usually held in autumn, running during the fourth week of September. It usually lasts for 3–4 days. The fair is open to collectors, VIPs, and the general public. If you want to attend the event and learn more about contemporary art, you need to purchase an entrance ticket. Those who want to purchase a piece of art at the fair will find lots of displays worth their attention.
