Design Dialogue: Jewish Contributions to Viennese Modernism
International Symposium

Design Dialogue highlights historical and contemporary scholarly perspectives that testify to the important contributions of Jews to Viennese modernism. The symposium is the first to examine the vital role of design of clothing, furniture, and other material items as well as buildings including private houses, synagogues, museums and coffee houses in the formation of shared cultural platforms for Jews and Christians between 1800 and 1938. The symposium will also examine the relevance of this historical discourse to today’s social, intercultural, and global perspectives.

Leading international cultural historians, architects, and curators will present cutting-edge research on the critical contributions of Jewish artists, professionals, and patrons in shaping Viennese modern material culture including the bankers Pereira-Arnstein, steel tycoon Karl Wittgenstein, owner of Zwieback’s fashion house Ella Zirner-Zwieback, art embroiderer Emilie Bach, educator Eugenie Schwarzwald, artist Nelly Marmorek, authors Peter Altenberg, Jakob Wassermann, Felix Salten and Theodor Herzl, pianist Paul Wittgenstein, and architects Karl König, Wilhelm Stiassny, Oskar Marmorek, Josef Frank, Liane Zimbler and Frederick Kiesler.

Organised by Dr. Elana Shapira (Design History and Theory, University of Applied Arts Vienna)

Programme

Thursday October 13, 2016

09.30 Welcome
Elana Shapira (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien)
Rainald Franz (MAK Wien)

10.00 Opening
Steven Beller, (Washington, D. C.)
Dis-Oriented Jews? Orientalism and assimilation in Vienna 1900

10.30-12.00 The Kaiser and his Neighbors – Jewish Emancipation Narrative
Moderator: Gabriele Kohlbauer-Fritz (Jüdisches Museum Wien)

1. Katharina Schoeller (Art historian, Wien), Ludwig Försters Bauten für die Familie Pereira Arnstein
2. Pierre Genée (Independent scholar, Wien), Wiener Synagogen zwischen Ost und West
3. Ursula Prokop (Architectural Historian, Wien), Das Palais Goldschmidt am Schottenring - Ein jüdisches Bildprogramm im Zusammenspiel von Bauherr und Architekt
12.00-12.30 Discussion

13.30-15.30 Jewish Renaissance
Moderator: Gerhard Milchram (Wien Museum)

1. Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek (Independent curator, Wien), Jüdische Museen - Repräsentanten der Moderne
2. Christopher Long (University of Texas at Austin, USA), The Königsschule and Its Legacies
3. Markus Kristan (Albertina Museum, Wien), Oskar Marmorek “Der Erste Baumeister der "jüdischen Renaissance"
4. Ingrid Erb (Architect, Wien), Cornelia (Nelly) Marmorek, Malerin und Muse
15.30-16.00 Discussion

16.00-18.00 Feminist Perspectives – Design and Women’s Emancipation
Moderator: Jill Meissner (Kiesler Foundation Austria)

1. Rebecca Houze (Northern Illinois University, USA), Emilie Bach: Teacher, Critic, and Art Embroiderer in the Era of Emperor Franz Joseph I
2. Deborah Holmes (University of Salzburg), Eugenie Schwarzwald and Adolf Loos - Reform Education and Architecture
3. Sabine Plakolm-Forsthuber (Technische Universität Wien), „Loos remodeled“. Zum Umbau der Leopold Goldman Wohnung von Adolf Loos (1910/11) durch die Architektin Liane Zimber 1936
4. Lisa Silverman (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA), Photography, Fashion and Vienna’s “New Woman”
18.00-18.30 Discussion

Friday October 14, 2016

10.00-12.30 Designed Identities?
Moderator: Christopher Long (University of Texas at Austin, USA)

1. Werner Hanak-Letner (Jüdisches Museum Wien) Was heißt hier Moderne? Über die Visionen und Bärte der Propheten Theodor Herzl und Hermann Bahr
2. Leslie Topp (Birkbeck, University of London), Modern Architecture and Antisemitism in Early Twentieth-Century Vienna
3. Tag Gronberg (Birkbeck, University of London), Myths of the Viennese Café: Ephemerality, Performativity and Loss
4. Iris Meder (Architectural historian, Wien), Jakob Wassermann und seine Architekten Oskar Strnad und Paul Schultze-Naumburg
5. Sebastian Hackenschmidt (MAK Wien)/ Claudia Cavallar (Architect, Wien), Josef Frank und seine jüdischen Auftraggeber – Fallbeispiele
12.30-13.00 Discussion

14.00-16.00 Between Two World Wars –
the Creative Legacy of Viennese Modernism
Moderator: Elana Shapira (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien)

1. Inge Podbrecky (BDA Wien), Von der Norm zum Diskurs? Josef Frank, Otto Neurath und die Siedlung
2. Rainald Franz (MAK Wien), Paul Wittgenstein and his Wiener Porcelain Collection
3. Werner Michael Schwarz (Wien Museum), Utopie Interieur: Felix Salten und die Faszination für Teppiche
4. Gerd Zillner (Kiesler Foundation Austria), Kiesler vs. Levy-Moreno - Krokodil oder Radio. Der Plagiatsstreit um die "Raumbühne" 1924
16.00-16.30 Discussion

17.00-18.00 Roundtable discussion

The Symposium will be held in English and German
Limited places - registration required
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/design-dialogue-jewish-contributions-to-viennese-modernism-mak-international-symposium-in-tickets-28139714644

The organizers reserves the right to make changes to the event program.

This event is kindly supported by:
Bundeskanzleramt Österreich
Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich
Wien Kultur
Institut Wiener Kreis – Wien Universität
Wienerberger AG
Der Standard
Raiffeisen NÖ-Wien AG
Milk & Honey Tours