Special exhibitions

Photograph: Darko Todorovic

Hiller. The Bregenzerwald’s Photographic Memory

Special Exhibition Fourth Floor | 27 May until April 2025

Whether the request was for wedding photos, souvenir photos from First Communion or pictures of deceased people – in Bregenzerwald, Foto Studio Hiller in Bezau, formed in 1923, was the top choice in terms of photography. Kaspar Hiller and his children documented seven decades of life and change in the valley. The curator and photo artist Arno Gisinger uses the comprehensive photo collection to tell the Bregenzerwald’s history during those years.

In co-operation with Vorarlberg State Library and Bregenzerwald Archiv (Regio Bregenzerwald)

Photograph: Kirstin Hauk

We are Tyrol! Vorarlberg Objects in the Collection of the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum

Special Exhibition Fourth Floor | 1 July until 7 January 2024

To mark the museum’s 200th anniversary, the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum showcases a selection of around 100 objects from Vorarlberg – including paintings of Angelika Kauffmann and Gebhard Flatz. How did these works of art find their way into the collection of the Federal State of Tyrol? In Vorarlberg, a museum association was not formed until 1857. Until then, the Ferdinandeum felt it had the responsibility to also collect and document works of art on Vorarlberg’s behalf. By the way, not only works of art but plants, animals and graphic reproductions as well.

In co-operation with the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum

Exhibitions in the Atrium (Free entry!)

Mohr Polster, photograph: Adolf Bereuter

“The Kanapee … is my Comfy Place”. About Biedermeier Sofas in Bregenzerwald

Exhibition in the Atrium | 11 November until Spring 2024

In some Bregenzerwald parlours, you will find Kanapees from the Biedermeier era, whose elegance is still impressive today. Their material, design and form are typical of the middle-class furniture design in the early 19th century. The exhibition illustrates the great variety of shapes by showcasing restored original sofas from Johannes Mohr’s workshop. But how did these exquisite pieces of furniture make their way from an urban environment to a rural region? This question has not yet been fully

Interventions and cooperations

Colours/Lights/Lake

Light Installation by Miriam Prantl in the Staircase

The Vorarlberg artist Miriam Prantl created the light installation Colours/Lights/Lake for the staircase featuring a gentle play of colours that reflects different light atmospheres at Lake Constance. The railing is equipped with LED strip lights whose upward light movement corresponds to the programming of seven light boxes in the stairwell. Slowing down, calming down, contemplation – the effect of the colours and the light attune visitors for the exhibition.  

www.miriamprantl.com

Core exhibitions

Photograph: Miro Kuzmanovic

Cosmopolitan City or?

Exhibition on the 3rd Floor

Brigantium in the 1st Century A.D. 

A forum the size of a football pitch, an ancient Roman spa, the craft and trade quarter at the Tschermakgarten in Bregenz – the public and private buildings of Brigantium dating from the first century A.D. all fire up your imagination. Was Bregenz a city during the time of the Romans? There is a lot to suggest that it was, but no clear evidence to confirm this. Following the much praised exhibition Romans or ...?, Cosmopolitan City or ...? is all about living together in Brigantium. Who used this place? Who lived here? Did they have an administration as well as a fiscal and social system? How was the economic and religious life organised? Based on the most recent scientific findings and archaeological finds, the exhibition invites museum visitors to speculate in a well-informed manner about Brigantium, its residents and visitors.

Ausstellungsansicht buchstäblich vorarlberg, Foto: Markus Tretter
Photograph: Markus Tretter

buchstäblich vorarlberg

Permanent Exhibition Second Floor

Insights into the Collection

Our collection comprises close to 160,000 objects from the fields of archaeology, art, everyday culture and history. The exhibition showcases very important and, at first glance, also less important objects from the museum’s rich holdings in alphabetical order. It starts with the letter “A” for “angelica-mad,” showing engravings by the artist Angelika Kauffmann, and ends with the letter “Z” for “zahla” (to pay), which features the hoard of coins found at Sonderberg Castle. In between schnapps glasses, self-portraits by Edmund Kalb, pommels, the estates of Fritz Krcal and Kundeyt Surdum, priest’s vestments, herbariums …

Coming up

Extra-mural Exhibitions Co-operation

Handcrafted spaces: Architectural models from Atelier Peter Zumthor
Werkraum Bregenzerwald, Andelsbuch| March 18 to September 16, 2023
exhibition

Middle Ages at Lake Constance
Historical and Ethnological Museum St. Gallen – until January 23, 2023

The State Government’s Art Collection | vorarlberg museum #6 and #7
Landhaus Bregenz Foyer, until 4 May and 19 October until 30 November

Art Acquisitions Made by the State Government in 2022
Kunstraum Remise Bludenz, 28 April until 11 June

In the Spotlight. Angelika Kauffmann and the Display of Art
Angelika Kauffmann Museum Schwarzenberg, 7 May until 29 October
summer exhibition

Rätisches Museum, Chur and Liechtensteinisches LandesMuseum, Vaduz
Middle Ages at Lake Constance. Economic area between Aloes and Rhine Falls

Werkraum Bregenzerwald, Andelsbuch | permanent exhibition
The Werkraum Depot - study collection of contemporary craftsmanship and design

Metzler company close to nature, Egg | from 14 octobre 2023
Visit of the house spirits III. Works from the collection of the vorarlberg museum