Skin Deep #4

One of my personal highlights of the exhibition "Skin Deep. Hair dressers, barbers, beauticians" at the Wien Museum was the assemblage of covers of professional journals for hairdressers. The covers in this photo (that shows only a detail of the assemblage) are from 1927 to 1951. The subtitle of one of the journals was "the gate to the world of the hairdo" - I think this sounds great.

Skin Deep #3

Up until World War I a fair skin was among the most important attributes of feminine beauty. This was a status symbol that only members of the upper class could afford as they did not have to work outdoors, unlike the majority of the population. Further, the cult of white skin was strongly associated with the dividing line between white and non-white ethnicities. This sun hat is made of hemp lace and dates from ca. 1910, as does the ceramic figure in rococo style "At her toilet".

Skin Deep #2

Some hairdresser instruments from the 1930s to the 1960s: an electrical hair drying hood, two electrical perming devices, an electrical hair dryer and a wash basin. Two of these instruments look rather scary, don't you think?

Skin Deep #1

Last Sunday I visited the exhibition "Skin Deep. Hair dressers, barbers, beauticians" at the Wien Museum. The exhibition deals with the practices and meanings of modern body care and styling from the 18th century onwards and focuses on shaving, hair care and cosmetics in the Viennese context. The objects in this photo are from the hairdressing salon "Marko's" opened in 1899. The salon was considered a top-class-establishment and counted numerous prominent people, inlcuding high nobility, as clientele. Regular clients' personal razors were kept in the small drawers of the cabinet.

Indoor Mural

The Wien Museum invited three Austrian street artists to do an indoor mural on the subject "250 Years of Prater". Here's the work of artist Perkup.

Prater Attractions

Some attractions of the Wurstelprater amusement park, currently on show in the exhibition "Meet me in the Prater! Viennese pleasures since 1766" at the Wien Museum.

Giant Ferris Wheel

Here's one of the photos I took in the exhibition "Meet me in the Prater! Viennese pleasures since 1766" at the Wien Museum: it shows a model of the Giant Ferris Wheel, located at the entrance of the Wurstelprater. It was constructed in 1897 by the English engineer Lieutenant Walter Bassett Bassett and was one of the earliest Ferris wheels ever built.

My First Guided Tour for Instagrammers

 

Last Saturday I took part in a guided tour for instagrammers through the exhibition "Meet me at the Prater! Viennese pleasures since 1766" at the Wien Museum, an exhibition on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Prater. We were allowed to take pictures and some of the participants immeditaley published their photographs. For me it was rather strange to observe all these people not really watching the exhibition, but their smartphones... By the way, have you already had a look at my instagram account?

Fashion Depot #3

The fashion depot of the Wien Museum comprises not only garments but also the corresponding accessoires, for example hand fans. They were not only beautiful accessoires but also used in a more or less secret, unspoken code of messages. These fan languages were a way to cope with the restricting social etiquette in the 18th and 19th century. Click here for a short vocabulary.

Fashion Depot #2

The textile restorer showed us exemplary garments of different periods. There were soooo many beautiful items!

Fashion Depot #1

This is not my wardrobe, but an insight in the fashion depot of the Wien Museum. Usually it is not open to the public but I recently was the lucky winner of a guided tour through the depot  - a very restricted place, we were told to  keep the address secret and to not photograph the outside of the building (Interestingly inside it was allowed to take photos). The depot comprises more than 22.000 items, the main focus is on women´s fashion of the 19th and 20th century.

Reflections #15

Reflections on the façade of the Wien Museum.

Absolutely Vienna

No other museum in Vienna collects with so broad a spectrum as the Wien Museum – art, photos, architecture, fashion, daily-life objects. Thousands of pictures and objects have been acquired in the first decade of the 21st century, complemented by unusual donations. The exhibition "Absolutely Vienna- Acquisitions and Donations since 2000" presents a selection, a collage of 500 aspects of Vienna, turning the spotlight on the unique potential of the Wien Museum. The exhibition runs through March 18.

An Afternoon at the Museum #3

Before leaving the Wien Museum, these visitors browsed the catalogues of former exhibitions at the museum shop.

An Afternoon at the Museum #2

While the children had fun at the game station of the Wien Museum last Sunday, some adult visitors took a break at the café.

An Afternoon at the Museum #1

Yesterday I intended to make an afternoon walk, but after ten minutes in the freezing cold I changed my mind and spent some time at the Wien Museum. Thanks to yesterday´s free entrance (on the first Sunday of each month) and the current semester break there were a lot of other visitors. The children seemed to have a lot of fun at the game station, a playing and learning area specifically designed for the motoric, cognitive and social abilities of young children (aged 2 to 6 years old).