This autumn we celebrate a decade of curatorial collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Josie Sanne and Zaccaria Slater, Graduates from MA Culture, Criticism and Curation, travelled to Vienna and selected graduates from the Academy to present alongside UK artists in the exhibition meins ist deins (what’s mine is yours) this autumn in London. This cooperation has brought over a hundred of UK- and Austrian-based artists together over the years and we look forward to another edition on the theme of sharing.
The Austrian Cultural Forum (ACF) London was founded in 1956 as a site for sharing: to use art and culture as a meeting point between Austria, the United Kingdom and the wider world. In the 70 years that have followed, the ACF has promoted cultural debate and discussion across borders. Our autumn exhibition meins ist deins (what’s mine is yours) invites the question: What does it mean for a country to share a cultural identity? While cities like London and Vienna position themselves as cultural capitals, do their edges always keep up? How do they access culture? Or do they slip into populist politics that advance a narrow definition of culture? Shared cultural identity resists easy definition, because in every locality it is constantly being redefined by the people who share and create it.
For this anniversary edition, we invite you to explore the ACF, from the intern’s office on the third floor to the salon, library and basement gallery, inquiring deep within the structures of the ACF space and how it seeks to define, decipher, and distribute culture.
meins ist deins is divided into two categories: meins (mine) and deins (yours). Within meins, traces of humanity emerge from small details: you’ll find intimate memories (Seihee Cho, Lotti Brockmann), the eyes of a bovine animal (Tao Iver & Julian Mack), a foot emerging from a wall (Tao Iver), a constellation of material anomalies (Janne Charlotte Schipper & Andreas Sahl Andersen, Julian Mack). Some works were forged in collaboration; all works situate self, partnership and the ways in which we reveal and conceal elements of ourselves.
Within deins, the question shifts from who to where. Sweeping landscapes illustrate a shared world marked by human intervention (Catherine Ward); a site-specific response at the Venice Biennale tests the architectural world's willingness to share (Fabian Antosch), a live enactment of the ACF itself questions the complexity of sharing identity in a country’s institution (Lia Quirina), tapestries that depict contested land ownership explore the loss of the Commons (Abigail Collicutt), and a site-specific installation responds to the divisional architecture of the space (Gabriella Day). meins explores access to shared spaces and how proximity to others defines and dictates collective culture.
meins ist deins reveals the complexity of sharing. To share with one another relies on trust and is continuously performed and tested, again and again. It is in this act of testing that we might find ours. Something that can’t be given or stated, but built, imperfectly, in the space between mine and yours.
The exhibition will continue until Friday 13 November 2026.
Exhibition Opening Hours: Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm.
This exhibition is presented with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport (BMWKMS).
