Debt. Annual Exhibition 2024/25

The final exhibition of the year is a showcase traditionally reserved for the members of the Kunstverein, this year guest-curated by Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas. The artists were selected through an international open call. 

Debt
Annual Exhibition of the members of the Salzburger Kunstverein 2024
14 December 2024 – 16 February 2025
Opening: 13 December 2024, 20:00

Debt is a broad concept that can be examined from various perspectives, including its emotional, social, historical, and economic dimensions. Symbolically, it represents any form of imbalance. It can also be understood as the distortion of a promise. Contemporary society is shaped by promises—of security, community and care—often dictated by economic contracts, historical injustices and societal expectations. Debt functions both as an ‘investment in the self’ and as a mechanism closely tied to control and discipline, as well as to responsibility, obligation and guilt. Between the fragility and persistence of the (power) structures that bind us together, the exhibition responds to the topic in its material—largely sculptural—written and spoken forms.

Artists: Gleb Amankulov, Benjamin Hirte, David L. Johnson, Tammy Langhinrichs, Artur Schernthaner-Lourdesamy, Miriam Stoney, Magdalena Stückler, Frank Wasser

Curator: Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas

With the generous support of Tectus Risk Management, Thaddaeus Ropac Galllery Salzburg and the Slovenian Cultural Information Centre Vienna.

Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas (she/her, b. Slovenia) is an art historian, independent curator and writer. From 2019 to 2023, she was director of the ULAY Foundation, where she was responsible for various (curatorial) projects related to issues of the artist’s legacy. A selection of her recent curatorial projects includes exhibitions at SOPHIE TAPPEINER (Vienna, 2024), Gregor Podnar (Vienna, 2024), Schauraum MuseumsQuartier Wien (Vienna, 2023/2024), Sector Gallery 1 (Bucharest, 2023), Eva Kahan Foundation (Vienna, 2023), HOW Art Museum (Shanghai, 2022/2023), Georg Kargl Fine Arts as part of the Curated by Festival (Vienna, 2022) and Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 2020/2021). Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas is a contributor to Artforum and her writing has been published in Frieze and ArtReview. She recently held a visiting professorship at die Angewandte, University of Applied Arts Vienna. She lives and works in Vienna.

Image: Gleb Amankulov, Cover, 2024, courtesy of the artist. Photo: kunst-dokumentation