Secession Podcast

Artists: Francis Offman in conversation with Kamogelo Walaza

This episode was recorded on 22 May, during the installation of Francis Offman’s solo exhibition at the Secession. Kamogelo Walaza, a curatorial fellow from South Africa, spoke with the artist about his work and the exhibition:
Francis OffmanWeaving Stories29.5. – 31.8.2025
The walls of the stairwell that leads to Francis Offman’s exhibition Weaving Stories are covered in dried coffee grounds. The dark tactile material transforms the narrow entrance to the exhibition space on the first floor into an immersive olfactory experience. More
The works of Francis Offman consist of canvases (not mounted on stretchers) with irregular contours, featuring paintings that emerge from the associations of sections of vivid, flat, uniform colors, and collage zones made with the insertion of scraps of paper – thin or thicker sheets, salvaged from bread wrappers or shoeboxes – which enter the composition like rips or wounds. An encounter that only on occasion makes elements emerge that can be traced back to the real: a dry tree, a mountain, a portion of water, earth or sky … Offman’s pieces are free compositions that imply fragile references, minimal and understated, to a faraway world (Africa and Rwanda, where the artist spent some of his childhood) and its customs, a traumatic memory and an uncertain identity; jagged, dynamic spaces that cannot give rise to an integral landscape. (Davide Ferri)
Francis Offman was born in Butare, Rwanda, in 1987 and now lives in Bologna, Italy.
Kamogelo Walaza is a curatorial fellow at the Secession from May to June 2025 as part of the FOCUS INTERNATIONAL programme of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport. She is a curator, writer, arts and cultural educator and ethnographer, born in Bloemfontein and based in Johannesburg. She holds a Postgraduate degree in Applied Drama and Theatre and a BA Honours in Drama Therapy from the University of the Witwatersrand, as well as a BA in Corporate Communication, an Honours in Communication Studies, and an Honours in Public Management and Governance from the University of Johannesburg. Walaza received the Marshall Kander Drama for Life Award for her research on HIV/AIDS awareness through applied drama. She recently completed a distinction-awarded autoethnographic paper titled Memories in Her Blood.
 
Secession Podcast: Artists features artists exhibiting at the Secession.The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.Programmed by the board of the Secession.
Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. EberhardAudio Editor: Paul MacheckExecutive Producer: Bettina Spörr

Artists: Aglaia Konrad im Gespräch mit Jeanette Pacher

Stein ist in unser aller Leben omnipräsent, nicht zuletzt in Form der Architekturen, in denen wir wohnen und arbeiten. Mit deren Utopien und Widersprüchen beschäftigt sich Aglaia Konrad in Filmen, Fotografien und Skulpturen. Die Künstlerin ist in den Alpen aufgewachsen. Seitdem begleitet Stein als Urmaterial, das Felsformationen, Berglandschaften, aber auch Architektur bildet, ihr Schaffen. Mehr erfahren

Members: Florian Pumhösl in conversation with Elisabeth Kihlström

This episode of Secession Podcast: Members features artist Florian Pumhösl in conversation with artist colleague Elisabeth Kihlström. It was recorded at the Secession on 7 November 2024.
Florian Pumhösl, born 1971, is an artist based in Vienna and Munich. Focussing on abstract vocabulary he has been working mostly on reliefs and drawings for the past years. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Miguel Abreu Gallery in New York, Galerie Buchholz in Berlin, and at Dvir Gallery, Paris.  
Elisabeth Kihlström, born 1988 in Sundborn, Sweden, is a visual artist based in Vienna. Working with sculpture, textile, installation, performance, and film, her recent practice focuses on handwoven sculptures made from metal and horsehair. She was awarded the Dorothea von Stetten Art Award in 2024. Recent presentations include Kunstmuseum Bonn, Contemporary Art Factory Kyoto, Black Forest Institute (BIA) and MUMOK Kino. In June 2025, she will present new work at BEK Forum, Vienna. Kihlström is also co-editor of Agency, a Vienna-based publishing initiative.
Secession Podcast: Members is a series of conversations featuring members of the Secession.
The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.
Programmed by the board of the Secession.Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. EberhardAudio Editor: Paul MacheckExecutive Producer: Jeanette Pacher

Artists: Ana Vaz in conversation with Damian Lentini

This episode is a conversation between the artist Ana Vaz and the curator Damian Lentini. It was recorded on 7 March, 2025 in the context of the exhibition:
Ana VazMeteoro 8.4. – 18.5.2025
In her film-poems artist and filmmaker Ana Vaz collages images and sounds that revolve around violence and repression, the impact of ecological ruin and the continued colonization of the earth. The deconstruction of the grand narrative of Western modernity that imposes itself across vast territories on this planet lies at the heart of her filmography.
In her exhibition at the Secession, Vaz showcases her new film series Meteoro (2023–). Predominantly focusing on Paris and Porto, European cities are depicted as on the verge of collapse or on the path to extinction. More
Ana Vaz is an artist and filmmaker born in the Brazilian midwest inhabited by the ghosts buried by its modernist capital: Brasília. Originally from the cerrado and wanderer by choice, Ana has lived in the arid lands of central Brazil and southern Australia, in the mangroves of northern France and in the northeastern shores of the Atlantic. Her filmography activates and questions cinema as an art of the (in)visible and instrument capable of transforming human perception, expanding its connections with forms of life — other than human or spectral. Her film-poems are marked by a constant experimental defiance to the poetic forms of contemporary cinema, highlighting the profound contradictions of our time and questioning, above all, the destructive practices of colonial modernity. Consequences or expansion of her cinematography, her activities are also embodied in writing, critical pedagogy, installations or collective walks.
Damian Lentini is a curator at the Vienna Secession. He obtained his doctoral degree in 2009 at the University of Melbourne and has realised major projects with artists such as El Anatsui, Phyllida Barlow, Kapwani Kiwanga, Sarah Sze, Sung Tieu, Raqs Media Collective, Harun Farocki, Dumb Type, Khvay Samnang, Lina Lapelytė and the Karrabing Film Collective amongst others.
Secession Podcast: Artists features artists exhibiting at the Secession.The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.Programmed by the board of the Secession.
Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. EberhardAudio Editor: Paul MacheckProduction: Damian Lentini, Jeanette Pacher

Artists: Minouk Lim in conversation with Bettina Spörr

This episode looks back at one of the central artistic positions in the group exhibition Forms of the Shadow. Minouk Lim's Currahee – Stand Alone, a floor-to-ceiling installation of painted military blankets, created a striking division of space and, in the context of the exhibition, could also be read in terms of the divided situation on the Korean peninsula, but also in the broader context of military conflicts, and as such this work is exemplary of current political crises and the latent danger of military escalation. More
On the occasion of this group exhibition, a spontaneous series of conversations with the artists who attended the opening in Vienna has evolved into a podcast mini-series. This conversation took place on 19 September 2024.
Forms of the ShadowCurated by Sunjung Kim20.9. – 17.11.2024
The publication is available for free download hereExhibition talk with Sunjung Kim, Adrián Villar Rojas and Jane Jin Kaisen, moderated by Noit Banai
With Nilbar Güreş; Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian; Kyungah Ham; Young In Hong; ikkibawiKrrr; Jane Jin Kaisen; Joon Kim; Lee Bul; Lee Kit; Mikael Levin; Minouk Lim; Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho; Adrián Villar Rojas; Ramiro Wong; Haegue Yang; Tomoko Yoneda; Jin-me Yoon; Min Yoon
The work of Minouk Lim (b. 1968, Daejeon, KR) extends personal experiences into a broader social realm, combining the intense political context of historical discontinuity and trauma with challenging yet sensory poetic narratives. Ranging from sculptures in non-fixed, fragile forms using organic materials, to video and performance that reposition fact and fiction, to multifaceted installations incorporating drawings, paintings, text, and sound, the artist’s work transcends the boundaries of genres and categories of media, reaching the point where each medium intersects and translates one another. Lim’s works engage in a “reconfiguration of the sensible” that seeks to uncover history’s hidden voices and forms. Her media is based on questions about modernity, issues of community and memory, and reflections on places concealed by time and space. Lim’s work is considered a “mediumistic media” that explores forms that revitalize endangered relationships in unfinished structures.
Since 2008, Bettina Spörr is a curator at the Secession, where she engages in close collaboration with artists to conceptualise and realise exhibitions that explore the profound impact of contemporary art on society. Throughout her career, she has worked with numerous artists on solo exhibitions and, in 2010, curated the group show where do we go from here? at the Secession.
The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.
Programmed by the board of the Secession
Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. EberhardAudio Editor: Paul MacheckExecutive Producer: Bettina Spörr

Artists: Yuki Okumura in conversation with Bettina Spörr

This episode was recorded on 7 March 2025 in the context of the exhibitions:
Yuki Okumura. Yuki Okumura andBig White Playground With Miriam Bachmann; Mario Batram; Paul Buschnegg; Said Gärtner; golden salamturtle; Grzegorz Kielawski; Emine Koza; Niklas Hofstetter; Yuki Okumura; Flavio Palasciano; Alex Pasch; Cristina Rüesch; Sebastian Scholz; Paul Spendier; Johanna Steiner; Lorenz Sutter; Kai Philip Trausenegger; Hans Weinberger; Marit Wolters; Márton Zalka 
The so-called white cube is a seemingly “neutral” and “pure” space with plain-white walls that is supposed to ensure the undisturbed autonomy of art. The Hauptraum, the largest gallery of Secession, is one of the earliest and most representative examples of it.
Like many artists who have exhibited here, Yuki Okumura took its empty state as a departure point for his working process. But instead of bringing works to this ideal backdrop to isolate art from the world, the artist conceived three site-specific projects to rediscover the space as a lived room interconnected with the world marked by its own conditions and contexts. For each project, Okumura designed a playful procedure and asked people related to the Hauptraum to enact it. More
A publication featuring an essay by James Gatt and a conversation with Yuki Okumura and Aaron Amar Bhamra & Monika Georgieva from the Vienna-based independent art space Laurenz accompanies the exhibition. download publication
The exhibitions are on view until 18 May, 2025.
Secession Podcast: Artists features artists exhibiting at the Secession.
The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.
Programmed by the board of the Secession.
Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. EberhardAudio Editor: Paul MacheckExecutive Producer: Bettina Spörr

Artists: Ali Cherri in conversation with Jeanette Pacher

The idea that natural elements can serve as witnesses to history is central to my work. When you look at the landscapes in my projects – what I refer to as ‘landscapes of violence’ or ‘geographies of violence’ – you see how these environments bear witness to historical trauma and conflict. (Ali Cherri)
This episode was recorded on 19 February 2025 in the context of the exhibition:
Ali CherriHow I Am Monument6.12.2024 – 23.2.2025
Ali Cherri was born in Beirut and lives and works in Paris. Spanning film, performance, sculpture, drawing, and installation, his work is inspired both by archaeological artefacts and the natural world, exploring the temporal shifts between ancient civilisations and contemporary societies. Using artefacts as a starting point, he investigates the boundaries of ideologies that underpin the foundations of nations and the myth of national progression. His work considers the links between archaeology, historical narrative and heritage, and the processes of excavation and relocation of cultural objects into museums. Reflecting on different geographies of violence in his native Lebanon but also in the broader region, he interrogates the ways in which political violence disseminates into people’s bodies and the physical and cultural landscape. More
Jeanette Pacher is a curator for contemporary art and has worked at the Secession since 2007, where she has developed numerous exhibitions in a sustained dialogue with artists, often supporting them in the production of new works, and has edited and contributed to related publications. She lectures regularly at the Department of Site-Specific Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and, since 2023, has served as a jury member for KÖR – Art in Public Space Vienna. Previously, she was part of the editorial team for the Ö1 Kunstradio radio show and began her curatorial career at Kunsthalle Wien in the mid-1990s.
A publication featuring an essay by Tom Houlton and a conversation with Ali Cherri, Emma Dean, and Jeanette Pacher accompanies the exhibition. https://secession.at/publikation_ali_cherri_EN
Secession Podcast: Artists features artists exhibiting at the Secession.
The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.Programmed by the board of the Secession.
Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. EberhardAudio Editor: Paul MacheckExecutive Producer: Jeanette Pacher
 
 

Members: Helmut und Johanna Kandl im Gespräch mit Kathrin Becker

Diese Folge des Secession Podcast: Members präsentiert die Künstler*innen Helmut und Johanna Kandl im Gespräch mit Kathrin Becker, der Direktorin des KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin. Johanna Kandl ist seit 1984 Mitglied und war von 1999 bis 2003 und von 2006 bis 2007 im Vorstand der Secession.Das Gespräch wurde am 11. Oktober 2024 in der Secession aufgenommen.HELMUT & JOHANNA KANDLSeit 1997 verheiratet und gemeinsame Arbeit, vor allem bei partizipativen und Rechercheprojekten. Leben und arbeiten in Wien und Berlin.https://www.hjkandl.atHelmut Kandl (geb. Schäffer) Geboren 1953 in Laa an der Thaya.Er verfolgt einen zum Angewandten hin offenen Kultur- und Kunstbegriff, der sich von der Schaffung von Kulturvermittlungseinrichtungen (GALERIE BRÜNNERSTRASSE, „FLUSS – NÖ Fotoinitiative“, Kunsthalle Krems) über Wohnprojekte Amtsstraße 28 bis zur Beschäftigung mit dem Kochen erstreckt.Im Bereich Recherche und  Dokumentation verwendet er vorrangig die Medien Fotografie und Video, oft unter Einbeziehung von Archiven und privater Fotografie.Johanna KandlGeboren in Wien.Arbeitet im Bereich Recherche und Dokumentation in den Medien Malerei und Video. Der Fokus der letzten Jahre liegt auf historischen und zeitgenössischen Malmaterialien und ihrem sozioökonomischen Kontext. Studium Konservierung und Technologie Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Malereistudium an der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien und der Akademija Likovna Umetnosti Beograd. Professur an der Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien 2005-2013. Im Vorstand der Secession von 1999 bis 2003 und von 2006 bis 2007.Einige Ausstellungen (hk Helmut Kandl, Jk Johanna Kandl, hjk helmut & Johanna Kandl, P Personale)1996 Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, Antagonism, (hk); 1999 Wiener Secession (jk, p), 2003 Kunstverein Basel Painting on the Move, (jk); 2007 Hayward Gallery, London, The painting of Modern Life, (jk); 2010 Pavillon Populaire, Montpellier, Aires de jeux, champs de tensions: figures de la photographie urbaine en Europe depuis 1970, (hk), 2017, Deichtorhallen Hamburg Wunder, 2010 (hjk), Albertina Wien (Österreich. Fotografie 1970−2000, (hk); 2019 Belvedere Wien Womit gemalt wird und warum, (jk,p), 2021 Kunsthaus Graz, Palette, (hjk, P); NÖ Landesgalerie, Krems, Viva Archiva, (hjk, P) Berlin, After the butcher, Was sind alle Kornblumen…, 2023 (hjk, P)Kunst im Öffentlichen Raum2024 Ringturmverhüllung Mit den besten Zutaten, (jk, P); Willi-Resetarits-Hof, Wien, Wandmalerei Be a Mensch (jk, P)Kathrin Becker arbeitet seit Februar 2020 als künstlerische Direktorin des KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst. Bis 2019 war sie Leiterin des Video-Forums des Neuen Berliner Kunstvereins (n.b.k.) und dessen Geschäftsführerin und Kuratorin. Sie studierte Kunstgeschichte und Slawistik an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum und an der Staatlichen Leningrader Universität. Themen ihrer kuratorischen Arbeit sind interkulturelle und transnationale Fragestellungen, die Rolle der bildenden Kunst in der Gesellschaft sowie der Komplex der Exklusion und Inklusion in zeitgenössischen Kulturen.Secession Podcast: Members ist eine Gesprächsreihe mit Mitgliedern der Secession.Das Dorotheum ist exklusiver Sponsor des Secession Podcasts.Programmiert vom Vorstand der Secession.Jingle: Hui Ye mit einem Ausschnitt aus Combat of dreams für Streichquartett und Zuspielung (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) von Alexander J. Eberhard.Schnitt: Paul MacheckProduktion: Bettina Spörr

Members: Matthias Herrmann im Gespräch mit Rike Frank

In dieser Folge hören Sie den Künstler und ehemaligen Präsidenten der Secession, Matthias Herrmann im Gespräch mit Rike Frank, aufgezeichnet am 17. Juni 2024.
Matthias Herrmann (*1963 in München) war von 1986 bis 1988 Mitglied des Balletts der Wiener Staatsoper. Von 1988 bis 1993 studierte er konzeptuelle Kunst bei Prof. Ernst Caramelle und Brigitte Kowanz an der Hochschule für angewandte Kunst in Wien. Von 1997 bis 1999 war er Mitglied des Vorstands der Wiener Secession, zu deren Präsident er 1999 (als jüngster Präsident seit Gustav Klimt) gewählt wurde. Von 2006 bis 2012 war er Professor für Kunst und Fotografie an der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, wo er nach Beendigung seiner Professur von 2013 bis 2018 als Mitglied des Universitätsrats tätig war. Seit 1999 wird er als Künstler von der Galerie Steinek (www.steinek.at) vertreten und lebt heute in Wien und Riparbella (Italien), wo er mit seinem Mann eine biologische Landwirtschaft betreibt.
Rike Frank interessiert sich seit den 1990er Jahren für institutionelle Modelle, ist als Kuratorin tätig, publiziert und unterrichtet gelegentlich Ausstellungsgeschichte und kuratorische Praxis. Seit 2020 ist sie Geschäftsführerin des Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung und leitet zusammen mit Vanessa Joan Müller die European Kunsthalle.
Secession Podcast: Members ist eine Gesprächsreihe mit Mitgliedern der Secession.Das Dorotheum ist exklusiver Sponsor des Secession Podcasts.Programmiert vom Vorstand der Secession.
Jingle: Hui Ye mit einem Ausschnitt aus Combat of dreams für Streichquartett und Zuspielung (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) von Alexander J. Eberhard.Schnitt: Paul MacheckProduktion: Bettina Spörr

Artists: Beatriz Santiago Muñoz in conversation with Bettina Spörr

“Lately, I have been considering how to get out of a structure in which I am forced to make sense. So, I’ve been thinking about the ways in which 20th century Caribbean poetry did a lot of work around nonsense. (…) I guess it’s very dadaist in a way: destroying the order around you, clearing a path so that other kinds of relationships between objects, ideas and places can happen.” Beatriz Santiago Muñoz in an interview with Andreas Petrossiants, published in Frieze, No. 248, 2024
This episode was recorded on 6 December, 2024 in the context of the exhibition:
Beatriz Santiago MuñozElogio al disparate 6.12.2024 – 23.2.2025
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz is a firm believer in the transformative potential of the camera to re-imagine and re-signify the world. At the center of her three films shown at the Secession is, of all things, nonsense. The newly produced works that were shot on 16 mm stock and then transferred to video use free association and formal play to build relationships between sound and image that are not to be grasped by “making” rational sense.  More
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz is an artist whose expanded moving image work is entangled with Boalian theater, expanded cinema and feminist practices. She tends to work with non-actors, and incorporates improvisation into her process. Her recent work is on the sensorial unconscious of anti-colonial movements and language experiments. Recent solo exhibitions include: Ottilia at Crac-Alsace, Oriana in PIVO, Sao Paulo, and argos in Brussels. She lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Since 2008, Bettina Spörr is a curator at the Secession, where she engages in close collaboration with artists to conceptualise and realise exhibitions that explore the profound impact of contemporary art on society. Throughout her career, she has worked with numerous artists on solo exhibitions and, in 2010, curated the group show where do we go from here? that took up the format of Secession’s ‘Young Scene’ exhibitions, presenting around 30 upcoming artists from Austria and Central Europe.
Secession Podcast: Artists features artists exhibiting at the Secession.The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.Programmed by the board of the Secession. 
Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. EberhardAudio Editor: Paul MacheckExecutive Producer: Bettina Spörr