The 26th Eiserner Vorhang (Safety Curtain), a yearly project by Vienna’s museum in progress, is designed by Anselm Kiefer. This nonprofit art initiative turns the fire protection wall between the Vienna State Opera’s stage and the auditorium into a temporary exhibition space for contemporary art. The audience can engage with Kiefer’s artwork before, during, and after performances.

Kiefer’s body of work includes paintings, publications by the artist, vitrines, and a variety of works on paper, including collages, sketches, watercolours, and photos that have been repurposed for his large scale canvases and installations. His actual materials, which range from textiles, tree roots, and burned books to lead, concrete, and glass, are as diverse as they are meaningful. The significance of the sacred and spiritual, myth and memory, is highlighted through the integration, expansion, and regeneration of imagery and processes.

Image: Anselm Kiefer’s safety curtain, Solaris (2023), for the 2023–24 season of the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna. Artwork © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Andreas Scheiblecker, courtesy museum in progress