Mumok

Über Mumok

mumok — the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig — is Austria's largest museum of modern and contemporary art, and the darkest building on the MuseumsQuartier plaza by design.

It was founded in 1962 as the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, moved twice, and settled into its current building in September 2001, when the collection of the Ludwig Foundation joined the Austrian state's own holdings under one roof.

The building, by Ortner & Ortner, is clad in grey basalt-lava stone from the Eifel region, chosen so it would sit apart from the pale Baroque stables around it rather than try to match them.

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Was ist drin?

The core of the collection is Viennese Actionism — Hermann Nitsch, Otto Muehl, Günter Brus, Rudolf Schwarzkogler — work the museum holds in a depth no other institution matches.

Alongside it sit Pop Art (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein), Fluxus, and Nouveau Réalisme pieces from Yves Klein and Arman, brought in through Peter Ludwig's donations.

The building itself works against a conventional room-by-room hang: five stacked levels ring a central stairwell, so the route between shows crosses several floors rather than following one corridor, and each level is usually a single themed or monographic exhibition rather than a slice of the permanent collection.

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Empfohlene Besuchsdauer

Allow ninety minutes for one or two of the current exhibitions, or half a day to work through all five levels when a major retrospective is on.

The basement and ground floor host the larger touring shows and take the most time; the upper levels are usually smaller thematic rooms that move faster.

The Viennese Actionism material is dense and, for some visitors, genuinely disturbing — the films in particular are not a quick pass-through, and it is worth budgeting extra time rather than rushing past them.

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Jahreszeit und Menschenmassen

Weekday mornings are the quiet window; the MuseumsQuartier as a whole fills up from early afternoon, especially on weekends when the surrounding courtyard becomes a meeting point rather than just a museum forecourt.

Exhibitions change on a rolling basis through the year, so what is on the five levels in winter is rarely what is on them in summer — check the current programme before visiting for a specific artist rather than assuming the collection highlights are always up.

The building has no natural light in most galleries, so the weather outside makes no difference to the visit itself.

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Tickets

Entry is paid and the museum sells a combined ticket covering all of the MuseumsQuartier's institutions at a lower rate than buying each separately, which is worth it for anyone also visiting the Leopold Museum or the Kunsthalle the same day.

This page does not reproduce the current admission price, because it changes and the museum's own site is the only accurate source for it on the day of a visit.

A reduced rate applies for students and under-19s with valid identification.

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Ankommen

The U2 stops at Museumsquartier, a short walk across the courtyard to the museum's basalt-clad entrance.

The U3 at Volkstheater and several tram lines along the Ring reach the MuseumsQuartier's Mariahilfer Straße side in a few minutes on foot.

There is no dedicated visitor car park; the MuseumsQuartier garage on Breite Gasse is the nearest paid option for anyone arriving by car.

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Worauf Sie achten sollten

The Viennese Actionism rooms contain explicit and violent imagery, including performance documentation that some visitors find distressing; there is no separate content warning at the entrance beyond a small note by the gallery door.

Stairwells between levels are the only route between some galleries, so a wheelchair or pushchair visit needs the lift, which is smaller than the main stairwell and can queue during busy exhibitions.

Bag and coat storage is required for larger bags, which adds a few minutes at the entrance during peak hours.

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Fotografie

Photography without flash is generally allowed in the permanent collection rooms, but loaned touring exhibitions frequently ban it entirely under the lender's terms, and the rule is posted at each gallery's entrance rather than applied museum-wide.

The building's own stairwell, spiralling around the central void between the five levels, is the most photographed interior feature and needs no special permission.

The basalt-lava façade reads best from across the MuseumsQuartier's main courtyard in late afternoon, when the stone goes almost black against the lit stucco of the Baroque wings.

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Wo es ist

In der Nähe

Externe Links

• Offizielle Seite
• +43 1 52500-0
• Auf Wikidata ansehen