X-Mas Series
MARUŠA SAGADIN: Blue Lips (Kiss-mas)
Maruša Sagadin
Blue Lips (Kiss-mas), 2024
Courtesy Christine König Galerie, Vienna, and the artist
Photo: Simon Veres
In celebration of the X-mas Series, the Heidi Horten Collection annually invites a contemporary artist to design a seasonal installation within the museum. Following the contributions of Manfred Erjautz (2022) and Tillman Kaiser (2023), this year’s spotlight falls on Blue Lips (Kiss-mas) by Maruša Sagadin. The sculpture, resembling an oversized plum-shaped Christmas tree ornament, explores themes of beauty and adornment in a broad sense, extending even to the human body. The form doubles as a pair of lips, which, as the title suggests, are rendered in blue.
November 27, 2024 to February 2nd, 2025
These blue lips might evoke the chill of winter, hint at emotional coolness, or, seen through the lens of techno-futuristic aesthetics, challenge conventional beauty standards with a bold statement. Sagadin’s playful manipulation of language adds another layer of meaning, transforming "X-mas" into "Kiss-mas." The lips thus symbolize the cultural practice of kissing, a gesture of intimacy and affection that underscores human connection and warmth.
EXHIBITION
Experiment Expressionismus
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Weiblicher Akt im Badezauber, 1912 © Heidi Horten Collection
Alexej von Jawlensky, Er und Sie, 1912 © Heidi Horten Collection
Max Pechstein, Die gelbe Maske II., 1910 © Bildrecht, Vienna, 2024
Egon Schiele, Damenbildnis (Wally Neuzil), 1912 © Heidi Horten Collection
Experiment Expressionismus - Schiele meets Nosferatu is a comprehensive, cross-genre exhibition on Expressionism. Important works from the Heidi Horten Collection act as a starting point of the exhibition that is curated by Roland Fischer-Briand and Rolf Johannsen. In particular works by the Expressionist painters Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein, among others. These artists are shown in context with works by Austrian Expressionist painters like Herbert Boeckl, Helene Funke, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Oppenheimer, Egon Schiele, Helene von Taussig and others.
11.04.-31.08.2025
In addition to visual arts, painting and sculpture, the exhibition also focuses on silent film - the new, if not leading medium of the time - which is illustrated in the exhibition with posters, film stills and excerpts from classics such as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari or Nosferatu – eine Symphonie des Grauens, but also films less familiar to the general public such as Genuine or Der müde Tod.
During the exhibition, the museum offers an evening program presenting silent films that will be shown for the first time in long version, accompanied by live music.
