In HOUSE OF CONSTRUCTS Giannotti challenges the conventional use and understanding of exhibition spaces—ranging from operational aspects like opening hours and ticketing to the sharing and experiencing of art within them. The project invites visitors to engage with a variety of artistic processes on their terms, emphasizing the creation of meaning through collaborative, repetitive and accumulative practices that blur the lines between art and labor. The exhibition becomes a crucible for exploration, where choreographic practices, labor tools, and materials like scaffolding and stage elements catalyze the formation of a shared vision. Incorporating sound and social sculptures, and engaging museum guards in the performative process, further dissolves the boundaries between artists, institutional staff and the visitors.

At the heart of HOUSE OF CONSTRUCTS lies a deep inquiry into the role of exhibition spaces within the contemporary art landscape, promoting them as arenas for human interaction and novel forms of community. Each day, Giannotti sets the stage for one of 19 process-oriented scenarios, collaboratively exploring the multifaceted potential of exhibition spaces together with choreographer Pauer, visual artists, choirs, performers, musicians, museum guards and further Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien staff. The main hall of the institution transforms daily through these instruction-based interventions. This approach not only celebrates the act of creation but also the myriad interactions and encounters it fosters, elevating the significance of a community-driven process over the final product.

Set within the historically classical context of the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, which has been showcasing visual art since 1989, HOUSE OF CONSTRUCTS presents a compelling juxtaposition. It invites a reinterpretation of a space typically linked with the completion and refinement of art, proposing instead a setting that embraces the raw and the emerging. HOUSE OF CONSTRUCTS extends a warm invitation to all visitors to engage, experiment, and explore an ongoing dialogue that spans past, present, and future conceptions of art, work and community, ensuring a unique and enriching experience with every visit.

Aldo Giannotti, born in 1977 in Genova, Italy, is a visual artist living and working in Vienna since 2000. Drawing plays a central role in the artistic practice of Aldo Giannotti, serving as a tool to communicate socio-architectural, socio-political, and socio-cultural concepts. He completed his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara, Italy; the Wimbledon University of Arts in London, England; and the Fine Arts Academy in Munich, Germany. His work has been presented and realized in collaboration with various institutions, such as Albertina, Vienna; Kunsthalle Wien; Lentos Museum, Linz; OK-Zentrum, Linz; Kunsthaus Graz; Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna; Ar/ge kunst, Bolzano; Künstlerhaus Dortmund; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Austrian Cultural Forum, London; Donaufestival, Krems; Museum Sztuki, Lodz; Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb; and many more. In 2021, he held his solo exhibition 'Safe and Sound' at the MAMbo Museum d'Arte Moderna in Bologna. He was the recipient of several awards and grants, such as the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant (2020), the first prize of the Austrian Graphic Competition at Kunsthalle Innsbruck (2019), the Pomilio Blumm Prize in Milano (2017), and the recognition award of Strabag Kunstforum, Vienna (2016).

Karin Pauer is a Vienna-based performer and choreographer. The exploration of relations, in betweens, empathy, and togetherness informs all her works. She negotiates these notions by combining embodied choreographic practices with language, visual arts, and live music. In 2008, she received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Choreography at the ArtEZ Institute of Arts in Arnhem, The Netherlands. Since then, she has collaborated with choreographers, theatre directors, filmmakers, and visual artists such as Doris Uhlich, Random Scream/Davis Freeman, Mike O’Connor, Maureen Kägi, Veronika Franz, Katrin Hornek, and Aldo Giannotti, among others. Since 2015, she has continuously worked with the Austria-based dance company Liquid Loft/Chris Haring. She was a recipient of the danceWEB scholarship in 2009 and the TURBO Residency in 2012, both at ImPulsTanz, Vienna. In 2018, she was granted the BKA START Scholarship. In 2020, she was nominated for the EU choreographic platform Creative Crossroads as part of Life Long Burning. Her own works have been presented at ImPulsTanz, Vienna; Tanzquartier Wien; Donaufestival, Krems; brutWien; Wiener Festwochen; MAMbo Museum, Bologna; and various international festivals. Her current work, testing grounds, a collaboration with Katrin Hornek, is on view at Secession Vienna until June 2024.