Art in Advent

Before the Museum Franzensfste Fortress closes its doors to the public in January and February, it will be hosting a series of special Christmas events in December.

Is it still possible to celebrate Christmas as the festival of peace and love with a clear conscience in view of the widespread decline in the values of solidarity and democracy? Is it still possible to find authentic, genuine images and feelings for the much-vaunted ‘quiet’ time, or has the Christmas season already been mercilessly sold out to kitsch and consumerism?

Six artists have accepted the invitation to design the inner courtyards of the fortress with a work related to the Christmas season. Elisa Grezzani, Ruth Gamper, Hartwig Thaler, Matthias Schönweger, Jörg Zemmler and Peter Verwunderlich transformed the inner courtyards of the Franzensfeste into a contemplative to weirdly cheerful art parcours without any sentimentally tinged Christmas mummery and with a critical view of the moral integrity and increasing commercialisation of Christmas.