In 2018, I returned to Vienna for the first time in 16 years. One of the first places I saw and visited was the Wien Museum Otto Wagner Pavilion at Karlsplatz. That started a journey of discovery: about the architect, about his building designs which remain a part of the urban landscape, and about the city’s first railway network which is now part of the modern public transport framework.
It’s summer 2025: my 5th visit to Vienna in 7 years. What’s “old and familiar” from repetition has become “fresh and new”. That means I said “hello” again to the former railway station pavilions at Karlsplatz, completed in 1898-1899 and shining examples of Vienna Art Nouveau (Wiener Jugendstil).
While the east pavilion has found new life as a bar, the west pavilion is home to the Wien Museum Otto Wagner Pavilion at Karlsplatz, which has a permanent exhibition about Otto Wagner and his direct involvement with the design and construction of the city’s first urban railway.
West pavilion, west side: at left is the entrance underground to U-Bahn lines U1 (red), U2 (purple), and U4 (green). Karlsplatz station is a junction for these 3 U-Bahn lines.
Detail of the western side.
West pavilion, east side: main entrance to the Wien Museum Otto Wagner Pavilion at Karlsplatz. At the surface, the museum is isolated from the U-Bahn junction station below ground.
Detail of the eastern face. For a civic construction of steel and concrete, there are plenty of floral and leafy motifs. For as much of the current U-Bahn signage solid in Helvetica or Sans-Serif font, there’s still life in the “old” lettering, bold and proud in Serif font.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 27 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
It’s one thing to mourn the loss of family, and to know where they are laid to rest, all in the city where I was born. Echoes of the extended double-stage grief have lessened in frequency and intensity over the years. It’s another thing to mourn the loss of a friend, one whom I had just begun to know and one whose final resting place is on the other side of the world. This grief is renewed when I return again to Vienna’s Central Cemetery.
Section 26 of the cemetery is a not only a place to pay respects to all who rest here, but also to recognize their sacrifice as all in this section made their wish to donate their bodies to science after their last breath.
Evelyn Brezina (1977-2024) was a disability rights advocate, saw the world from a unique perspective, and lived her life with purpose and with joy. Having seen her online presence, I met her in person briefly in the summer of 2023. She died unexpectedly in January 2024.
Fast forward to the present on a breezy cloudy day, I walked across the length of the cemetery towards its eastern wall. Rows of graves and trees clear with an open field and the appearance of an octagonal structure. I look for wall board number 110, and locate the name plate. As the only one person present on this afternoon, I’m sat on a bench for some time, with only the wind and rustling of trees for company.
“See you next time.”
Section number 26, Vienna central cemetery.
Dem Andenken jener Menschen, die ihren Körper nach dem Tode in den Dienst der Wissenschaft und medizinischen Aus- und Weiterbildung gestellt haben. // In memory of those people who, after death, placed their bodies at the service of science and medical education and training.
There are several boards and walls, each with several hundreds of names.
At centre here is the nameplate for Evelyn Brezina.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 14 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
Where the 9th district meets the “inner belt”, the present-day location of Vienna’s Allgemeines Krankenhaus (General Hospital, VGH) with its two dark brown 22-floor towers has been a city fixture since the 1970s. VGH has almost 9-thousand on staff and, as teaching facility, an additional 8-thousand students at the Medizinische Universität Wien (Medical University of Vienna). After moving locations, the first site of VGH became the primary campus for the Universität Wien (University of Vienna).
Since 1987, VGH has its own metro/subway station “Michelbeuern – Allgemeines Krankenhaus” on the U6 U-Bahn line. The new U5 line in extending west to Hernals on the “outer belt” will include a brand new station at VGH.
MUW: Medizinische Universität Wien – AKH: Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien.
Bridge over tracks and Währing Belt Road, connecting the U6 station with the hospital (background).
Covered bridge concourse, facing west towards the station; VGH is behind me in this image.
To the north are “Revisionhallen” or halls for regular inspections. The working U6 tracks are at far-left, as a southbound U6 train approaches the station.
To the south is the U-Bahn Betriebsbahnhof Michelbeuern (service depot and facility at Michelbeuern).
U6 station Michelbeuern – Allgemeines Krankenhaus, with a partly obscured tower of VGH.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 25 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
The sculpture provided the introduction three years ago. Two clasped hands, each as tall as a person. Each hand made of 1-million 1-Eurocent coins. Seen in 2022, next to St. Stephan’s Cathedral. Seen next in 2023, the sculpture moved near the big fountain at Schwarzenbergplatz. A wonderful crowdfunded project, created by Austrian artist Julia Bugram.
This past spring, I receive a kind invitation to visit her studio. It’s July and I’m in Vienna’s 5th district. I make my way up to the 2nd floor of an “Altbau”, and arrive at a cozy working art-space shared between Julia and another artist.
Julia is presently exploring themes surrounding community and society; and how art can create, enhance, and strengthen connections among people. Artistic influences include: Hilma af Klimt, Mela Diamant, Renate Bertlmann, Margot Pilz, Jakob Lena Knebl, Martha Jungwirth. Her “Raising Hands” sculpture is presently in storage, waiting for new benefactors and fresh eyes.
We spoke at some length about the economic and cultural challenges contemporary Austrian artists face in the creation and distribution of their work, as well as the difficulty of commuting between Vienna and her home in Burgenland. Despite challenges, I’m looking forward to seeing what she’ll create in the near future.
Working art space shared by Julia Bugram and Elisabeth Hansa. (I’ve greyed out their contact numbers.)
Julia’s recent book with images of her recent art pieces, including extensive discussion and the context of her work: “Widerstand & Neugierde: Kunst, die Veränderung fordert.” (Resistance & Curiosity: art that demands change).
Back cover.
Most who directly supported the publishing her book are from Vienna, other parts of Austria, and Europe.
Her triptych creation, “Fut – Mut – Wut”, presented here in alphabetical order with carefully selected wallpaper-like background motifs. Three words of equal length that rhyme, each word an expression of an essential facet or dimension for a woman.
Defiance and empowerment, body autonomy, questioning the gaze, control of their own narratives.
Many of the pieces on the wall include sketches of plants, emphasizing her desire to commune with and derive inspiration from nature.
My thanks to Julia for her invitation and her time. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 11 July 2025. I received neither support nor compensation for this piece. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
Austrian artist Brigitte Kowanz (1957-2022) long held a fascination for light. Light isn’t simply the medium through which information propagates; rather, light itself is the tool and the mould for illumination, reflection, and even introspection. There’s a definite spirit of fun and “lightness” when she matches her fondness for Morse code with illumination sources.
In my view, there’s something in her light-based artworks which allude not only to her philosophy and worldview, but also, happily for me, to her clear interest for science. Her works also anticipate and explore timely themes including what it means to live in an information-rich society that fully embraces digital habitats and virtual spaces.
She’s quoted as saying (2017):
“Licht ist expansiv und flüchtig, es bleibt nie bei sich – Licht ist eine Lebensmetapher.”
(Light is expansive and elusive, it never remains the same – light is a metaphor for life.)
I discovered her work for the first time in 2018 on the roof of the Leopold Museum in Vienna’s MuseumQuartier. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to come across more of her artwork installed throughout the city.
The Brigitte Kowanz retrospective, “Light is what we see”, is now on display at the Albertina from 18 July to 9 November 2025. In part, I arranged my 2025 time in Vienna to coincide with the final run of the Francesca Woodman exhibition *and* the start of the Brigitte Kowanz exhibition.
“Alphabet”, 1998/2010: neon, mirror. Letters A (right-centre) through Z are represented clockwise with each letter as illuminated Morse code. I may be out of the “game”, but this looks a lot like an accretion disk surrounding an astrophysical “black hole”.
“Echo Hall Flow Nein”, 2003/04: neon, mirror. Each word appears vertically, consecutively from left to right. The large number of internal reflections is another hallmark of her work, always asking the viewer to determine the placement of the original source.
“Morse Alphabet”, 1998: fluorescent tubes, plexiglass tubes, enamel paint. Each radial spoke contains a letter of the alphabet in illuminated Morse code. “A” begins at the top at around 12:02, moving clockwise to “Z” at 11:58.
An example of one of her infinity boxes. “Rund um die Uhr” (around the clock), 2011: neon, mirror. The image is partly corrected for geometric distortion.
“asap omw imo tbh bif afaik irl idc idk iow hth fyi omg”, 2021: neon, aluminum, enamel paint. I had to look up a couple of these in the urban dictionary. NGL, but I feel old.
“Forward”, 2005: neon, stainless steel, enamel paint. Each letter is represented in Morse code by a vertical panel with an illuminated tube; “r” 3rd from the left & 2nd from the right.
One room in the exhibition area.
“Speed of Light sec/4m”, 1989/2007: neon, chrome steel. “0,000000013342563 second” (1.33E-8 sec or 13.3 nanoseconds) is the time required for light to travel 4 metres, which appears to be the actual length of this sculpture.
“light is what we see”, 1994/2019: glow lamps, power strips, plexiglass, stainless steel.
“Signature” (Kowanz), 2015: neon, mirror. That’s my bulbous head in the reflection.
I received neither support nor compensation for the present piece. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 23 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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