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)

To mark the museum’s 200^th 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

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 19^th 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

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

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.

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 …