In the Studio James Lewis, Vienna

James Lewis works with the things that remain when certainty disappears — data, photographs, scent, fragments of memory. Born in London, based in Vienna, he builds installations that ask how we construct knowledge, turning a statistic into a sculpture, a memory into a scent.

In the Studio Cecilia Vicuña, New York

Cecilia Vicuña’s practice moves fluidly between poetry, sculpture, textile, and performance, always returning to what she calls arte precario: an art built from debris, unspun wool, feathers, and stone that she has been making since 1966. Rooted in Indigenous Andean knowledge systems, and above all in the khipu—the knotted cord long dismissed as a mere accounting device—her work reframes precariousness and fragility as forms of consciousness rather than loss.

Person with long wavy hair sits on a stool in a gallery, looking at the camera, wearing a navy jacket; left wall covered in blue Life posters.

In the Studio Robin Kid, Rambouillet, France

Robin Kid works with images that feel less made than encountered. Cowboys, cops, fragments of cartoon Americana: images that existed long before he picked them up, suspended somewhere between memory and mass culture. Raised in the south of the Netherlands by his grandparents, in a former mining neighbourhood bordering an American army base, he grew up with the idea of the U.S. glowing faintly from the other side of the fence.

Adult person wearing a cream knit sweater and plaid trousers stands with hands in pockets in a bright, minimalist interior with large windows.

Collector Stories Gil Bronner, Düsseldorf

The Düsseldorf art collector Gil Bronner is the founder of the Philara Collection, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2026. The Philara Collection is a public exhibition space for international contemporary art, showing art in a former glassworks in Düsseldorf. Parts of his private collection, which Bronner has been building up since the 1990s, are also on display here.

Culture Briefing

Where to meet art, culture and creativity

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For the 22nd time, VIENNA ART WEEK puts Vienna’s vibrant art scene in the spotlight. Under this year’s theme, “Navigating Angst,” the festival explores the fears and uncertainties of our time. Together with around 70 programme partners, the festival offers a full week of inspiring art – from contemporary to Baroque – with free admission.

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Iranian-born artist Soli Kiani creates a body of work in which fabric becomes both a formative substance and a carrier of social meaning. Themes such as origin, physicality, and negotiating patriarchal structures are combined in her work with a distinctive, sculptural language. For the Dominikanerkirche Krems, she has conceived a spatial installation in which textile materials serve as the central artistic medium.

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Swab Barcelona will celebrate its 19th edition from October 8 to 11 at the Victoria Eugenia Palace (located at the Fira Barcelona-Montjuic site, in the city of Barcelona, Spain) in a space of more than 3,150 m2 that will use reusable elements such as wood to minimize the event's ecological footprint and reduce waste. Under the metaphor of the eclipse as a change of perspective, the international independent art platform, which will feature more than 180 artists from 22 different countries, debuts the OFF-SITE program and commits to decentralizing artistic practice and strengthening community ties. This will respond to the need to rethink exhibition and market structures in the face of the current climate and socio-political crisis.

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With Elisabeth von Samsonow, the Heidi Horten Collection is dedicating a major solo exhibition to an artistic and philosophical perspective that transcends narrow disciplinary boundaries. This is the first time that Elisabeth von Samsonow’s multifaceted body of work has been presented on this scale, showcasing its artistic breadth and intellectual depth.

Nordic Notes

Bearded adult male in a beige jacket holds a large poster of two people embracing in a bright art studio with ladders and frames.

Simon Dybbroe Møller, Berlin
Whether working with film, sculpture, installation or the written word, Simon Dybbroe Møller’s work always comes back to the photographic image. Interested in how we are shaped by the media we create, the Danish born, Berlin-based artist questions “how it feels to be bodies tumbling or stumbling through this world”.
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