A city known for its architecture, music, and paintings switches focus to another art form for around four weeks at the Foto Wien photography festival.
For the entire month of June 2023, ninty program partners — museums, cultural institutions, galleries, educational establishments, studios and off spaces — will participate in the tenth edition of FOTO WIEN 2023. During the month, Vienna will host a festival of visual media, with exhibitions, presentations, and extremely varied special events held all over the city.
The various perspectives and voices of artists, curators, gallerists, and scholars show the richness of the medium of photography as a social tool to reflect and communicate in the world. Photography encourages cultural understanding and refers to social mechanisms of action.
Organised by FOTO ARSENAL WIEN, consider Foto Wien a celebration of the art of photography, a showcase for photographic initiatives and photographers, and a focus for all those with a love of the medium to come together at talks, workshops, exhibitions etc.
To give you an idea of what to expect, around 300 events at some 110 different Viennese locations are scheduled for the 2023 event. This year’s notable (and timely) theme is Photography Lies.
Browse the festival website to review the full programme once available. As you explore the exhibition listings, look out for some unusual venues that might include the likes of Café Prückel (one of Vienna’s great coffee houses and a 2022 participant).
Although activities take place across the city, Foto Wien has a festival HQ with its own events and exhibitions. In 2023, the MuseumsQuartier takes on HQ responsibilities. This hotbed of contemporary art in Vienna is the temporary home of FOTO ARSENAL WIEN until they get a permanent location and exhibition venue in the Arsenal complex (where you find, for example, the Museum of Military History).
2023 Tickets and Dates
TFoto Wien takes place during June, 2023. This will be the third edition.
See the website for the 2023 situation regarding tickets and access to individual events, once available.
How to get to Foto Wien
The 2023 festival headquarters are rather central. Check the main MuseumsQuartier article for travel tips. Address: Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna (2023 festival HQ)
Look Back at 2022
in 2022 The Kunst Haus Wien hosted the Foto Wien photo festival for the second time. More than 140 exhibitions and 300 events put photography in the viewfinder. Museums, galleries, project spaces, and billboards in public places show new photographic positions and works from various photographers’ workshops. The festival was supported by a comprehensive programme comprising symposiums, talks, a photo book market, studio visits, and guided tours at a host of locations throughout the city.
The Foto Wien photo festival focused on two main areas: Rethinking Nature and exploring the key role played by photography in perceptions of nature. Many artists are contributing to our appreciation of the current environmental situation by using the potential of photography to reflect on the critical relationship between humankind and nature. And secondly, Female Photographers in Focus looked on the outstanding work of female photographers since the medium’s invention in the nineteenth century, helping to publicize their achievements and clearing the way for them to claim their rightful place in the history of art and photography.
FOTO WIEN / various locations, March 9-27, 2022 www.fotowien.at