The Museum of (Non)Restitution

During the National Socialist period, objects that were “Aryanized” or expropriated and are—or were once—held in the Salzburg Museum form the starting point for a collaborative exhibition by Salzburg Museum and Salzburger Kunstverein. The exhibition interweaves provenance research with contemporary artistic interventions on addressing restitution and cultures of remembrance.

In his work, Thomas Geiger engages with the immateriality of what remains concealed: his wall drawing A Cartography of Theft transforms the looting of art into a network diagram, identifying Salzburg and the Salzkammergut as nodal points within an expansive apparatus of dispossession. Tatiana Lecomte reflects on photography as a medium of regulated visibility. Her project God Bless the Year 1942. Helene Taussig and her House, based on a 1935 photograph, links a large-scale wall drawing of the “Aryanized” studio house of Helene Taussig with a painting by the artist from the Salzburg Museum that was restituted but subsequently repurchased. Sophie Thun, through analog black-and-white photography and large-scale installations, reconstructs the storage conditions of the Salzburg Museum: objects relevant to restitution oscillate between status and function—no longer private property, no longer institutional collection items, and not yet returned.

Artists: Thomas Geiger, Tatiana Lecomte, Sophie Thun
and restitution objects, a.o., from Hans Makart and Helene Taussig

Co-produced by Salzburg Museum-Gastspiel and Salzburger Kunstverein-Picturing Justice 2025. Curated by Mirela Baciak, Katja Mittendorfer-Oppolzer and Susanne Rolinek.

OPENING: 19.09.2025, 20:00

Public Talk: 30.09.2025, 10:30 with Susanne Rolinek and Katja Mittendorfer-Oppolzer

Curatorial tour: 
03.10.2025, 15:00 with Susanne Rolinek, Katja Mittendorfer-Oppolzer and Tatiana Lecomte
31.10.2025, 15:00 with Susanne Rolinek and Katja Mittendorfer-Oppolzer
14.11.2025, 15:00 with Mirela Baciak

Guided tour Long Night of Salzburg Museums: 04.10.2025, 19:00 

Accessible tour: 23.10.2025, 13:30 with Nadja Al Masri-Gutternig

Panel discussion: 04.11.2025, 18:00
Restitution – Undoing the Past?
with Thomas Geiger, Tatiana Lecomte, Katja Mittendorfer-Oppolzer and Susanne Rolinek

Thomas Geiger (*1983, Schopfheim, DE) is a Vienna-based artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans performance, sculpture, and text, often exploring the dynamics of public and institutional spaces. His work is rooted in dialogue, imagination, and the recontextualization of everyday objects and encounters. His projects have been presented internationally, including collaborations with Le Capc Bordeaux, Belvedere Vienna, Kunstverein Siegen, Kunsthalle Wien, CAC Brétigny, Wiener Festwochen, steirischer herbst, and Fondation Pernot Ricard, among others.

Tatiana Lecomte’s (*1971, Bordeaux) projects relate to questions of representation and the way in which photography is involved in the production of history. Her work has been shown at, among others: Frac MÉCA, Bordeaux; Josephinum, mumok, Jewish Museum, Vienna; MUDAM, Cercle Cité, Luxembourg; Salzburger Kunstverein, Fotohof, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Camera Austria, Graz; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn; Galerie im Taxispalais, Neue Galerie, Innsbruck; Lentos, Landesgalerie, Linz.

Sophie Thun (*1985, Frankfurt) works primarily with techniques of analogue photography, its spaces, processes as well as conditions of production and exhibition. Raised in Warsaw, Thun completed her master’s degree at the Academies of Fine Art in Vienna (2017, Martin Guttmann and Daniel Richter) and Cracow (2010). Thun is currently interim professor of the photography class at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Recent solo and two person exhibitions include: Zwischen Licht und Wand, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, What do you do in bed?,  Gdańska Galeria Miejska, Gdańsk, Stolberggasse zu Friedrichstraße zu Grabbeplatz, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2024).

Image:  Studio Hans Makart (1804–1884), Mermaid with a Fisher’s Net (rear view), 1871/72, oil on canvas, @Salzburg Museum (Loan from Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich).