Sara Keating: Two Viennese art experiences paint a global picture of climate change
A visit to Vienna served up two thoughtful exhibitions that force the viewer to confront the damage we are doing to the environment
Something has gone wrong at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, home to the city’s extensive collection of the works of Austria’s most famous painters, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.
On the top two floors of the museum, classical paintings hang askew, as if a naughty child has run through the rooms, tipping random frames so they sit at angles to the viewers’ straight gaze.
The security guards seem unbothered, however, and as you tilt your head to appreciate the artists’ true perspective, the exhibition note reveals the distorted landscape paintings to be an artistic intervention, rather than a protester’s one. It is part of an artivist initiative called A Few Degrees More, which confronts us with both artistic and environmental purposes.
