Galerie & Kuratorische Praxis

Photo: Sabine Stieger

The Galerie Barbara Steininger-Wetzlmair is located in a former primary school in Kirchbach near Rappottenstein, in the heart of the Waldviertel. Embedded in the wild and romantic landscape of the region, away from urban centres and metropolises, it serves as a living space for cultural exchange. The former classrooms function as exhibition spaces presenting current artistic positions. The programme features both emerging young artists and established voices from the visual arts, across a wide range of media.

(Your perspective)
For me, this work is above all about nurturing long-term relationships, both with 
artists and with the residents of Kirchbach and the surrounding area.
This requires attention, patience and a willingness to create conditions for the artistic process 
that allow for a certain openness and engagement with the place. 

In a region away from the major centres, this means: listening, expanding existing infrastructure,
forging new connections and taking the local community seriously as a key
stakeholder. My gallery and the off-space in the Waldviertel are workshops for fostering such
conditions – places of hospitality where works are not merely exhibited,
but accompanied: through research, dialogue, outreach and the cultivation
of contexts.

Working in a decentralised manner is not a stopgap solution, but a method: the pace of the
location, its stories and its audience shape how and why we exhibit.
This gives rise to exhibitions that do not import, but anchor – and which
place art in dialogue with life here.