New Venue: MENTAL LOAD
- 4 days ago
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NEW VENUE & OPENING:
MENTAL LOAD & INVISIBLE LABOUR
A New Chapter at VHS Donaustadt x kleine galerie
MENTAL LOAD AND INVISIBLE LABOUR
Location: VHS DONAUSTADT, Attemsgasse 38, 1220 Wien
Date: 09.06.2026- September 2026
A Living Exhibition Finds a New Home
Following its successful presentations in Bad Ischl and its ongoing participation at the European Cultural Centre's Venice Biennial 2026, Mental Load & Invisible Labour has opened a new chapter in Vienna.
Hosted by kleine galerie in collaboration with VHS Donaustadt, the exhibition is now presented at the newly inaugurated cultural and educational centre in the Attemsgasse, 1220 Vienna, a place dedicated to learning, dialogue, and community. The opening formed part of the official inauguration of the new VHS Donaustadt building, creating an inspiring context in which contemporary art and public education come together.
Making the Invisible Visible
Since its inception, Mental Load & Invisible Labour has explored the invisible forms of work that sustain everyday life: organizing, planning, remembering, anticipating, and caring.
These often-overlooked responsibilities are not only personal experiences but also reflections of broader social structures and inequalities.
The exhibition brings together a wide range of artistic practices—from painting and sculpture to installation, performance, and video—to investigate questions of care, responsibility, gender, and the politics of the unseen. Each work contributes to a larger conversation about the value of invisible labour and its impact on our individual and collective lives.
From Bad Ischl to Vienna
Every venue has added a new dimension to the project.
In Bad Ischl, the historic Trinkhalle and Sudhaus der Salinen Austria connected the exhibition to the material history of salt and labour. In Venice, the works entered an international dialogue within the framework of the ECC Biennale.
Now, in Vienna, the exhibition finds an especially meaningful setting within a public educational institution. The collaboration with VHS Donaustadt and kleine galerie reinforces the exhibition's commitment to accessibility, exchange, and critical reflection, inviting audiences beyond the traditional museum context to engage with the topic.
Curating a Continuing Conversation
As curator, it has been particularly rewarding to see this project evolve across different cities and contexts while maintaining its core intention: to make visible what is so often overlooked.
Rather than offering definitive answers, Mental Load & Invisible Labour creates a space for dialogue.
It encourages visitors to reflect on the invisible structures that shape everyday life and to recognize care, emotional labour, and mental organisation as essential yet frequently unacknowledged forms of work.
The exhibition continues to grow through each new venue, each audience, and each conversation it inspires.
The journey goes on
The journey of Mental Load & Invisible Labour continues to unfold across multiple contexts and audiences.
Following its presentations in Bad Ischl and its current exhibition at VHS Donaustadt x kleine galerie in Vienna, selected works remain on view at Palazzo Mora as part of the European Cultural Centre's Venice Biennale 2026 until 22 November 2026, extending the project's international dialogue on care, invisible labour, and social structures.
The exhibition will also be presented as part of the Angewandte Festival 2026 at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where it returns to its academic origins and enters into conversation with artistic research, education, and contemporary discourse. Within this framework, the project continues to evolve as a platform for reflection, exchange, and critical engagement with the invisible forms of labour that shape our everyday lives.
Together, these presentations demonstrate that Mental Load & Invisible Labour is not a static exhibition but an evolving platform for artistic, educational, and social discourse.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all participating artists, collaborators, partner institutions, and supporters whose commitment continues to make this project possible. Their contributions ensure that the invisible can become visible—and that important conversations around care, responsibility, and social justice continue to reach new audiences.
The Artists
At the centre of Mental Load and Invisible Labour are the participating artists, whose works articulate, question, and transform the conditions of invisible labour.
Participating artists:
@die4grazien feat. @christianespatt
Amanda Bravo
Robert Cambrinus
David Carol Fedders
Edo Amelie Katavic
Sarah Kretschmer
Lena Mayringer
Susanne Meerwald-Stadler Veronika Merklein Wolfgang Miksits
Paula Peters
@schottenringding Lena Reutenauer Jonas Rottmann
Alexandra Rusz
karo_sams
Gabriele Schuller @kunstnomadin
Christiane Spatt
Astrid Starrermayr @artby_as
Gertraude Stüger
Golnaz Walamotamed
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Special thanks to:
Stadt Wien
VHS Donaustadt
Kleine Galerie
Daniela Auerbach (Galerie am Fluss)
Anita Kern (curatorial and graphic support)
Christina Carli (funding and organisation), Michaela Schober (editing), Orna Baumgartner, Ebba Fransén Waldhör, Isabel Kranz (support)
Tanja Prušnik (President, Künstlerhaus Wien) and Günther Oberhollenzer (Curator, Künstlerhaus Wien)
the City of Bad Ischl, especially Mayor Ines Schiller, and all local partners (Salzkammergut Bad Ischl)
the European Cultural Centre (ECC), including Micaela Skerl, Lucia Pedrana, and their team
the University of Applied Arts Vienna, particularly Rector Ulrike Kuch and Vice-Rector Maria Zettler
the Angewandte Festival team, especially Lena Kohlmayr, Zentrum Didaktik für Kunst und interdisziplinären Unterricht
Salinen Austria
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the sponsors:
Hubert Achleitner (Hubert von Goisern)
Jakob Reitinger (Regensburg Tourism)
The Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs
Forum Austriaco di Cultura Milano
Kultur Oberösterreich
Regensburg Tourismus GmbH
Toward Visibility
Mental Load and Invisible Labour understands artistic practice as a form of knowledge production. It demonstrates how complex social conditions can be translated into form, experience, and public discourse.
The exhibition does not resolve the tensions it reveals.Instead, it holds them open.
Between visibility and invisibility.Between individual and structure.Between care and exhaustion.
And in doing so, it invites us not only to see differently—but to reconsider how responsibility, labour, and attention are shared.
Curated by Ruth Mateus-Berr, Anita Kern, Daniela Auerbach
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