30 March 2025

Vienna Art Week 2025: Learning Systems and the Role of Art in Knowledge Transmission

A Citywide Festival Dedicated to the Dynamics of Learning
Vienna Art Week, one of the city's most anticipated cultural events, has announced the dates and theme for its 21st edition. From November 7 to 14, 2025, the festival will take over locations across Vienna, offering a platform for exhibitions, discussions, and artistic interventions. This year's theme, "Learning Systems," explores the various ways knowledge is generated, transmitted, and adapted in contemporary society. The call for participation is now open, with submissions accepted until April 30, 2025.

Vienna Art Week: A Platform for Artistic Exchange
Since its inception, Vienna Art Week has served as a crucial hub for artists, theorists, and institutions to engage in dialogue about contemporary artistic and intellectual concerns. With a mission to foster artistic discourse and accessibility, the festival unites museums, galleries, artists, and independent spaces in a collaborative effort to step into socio-critical dialogues through art.

Each year, the festival is curated around a specific theme that reflects urgent cultural and intellectual discussions. In 2025, the focus is on learning as a process of recognition, unlearning, and rethinking - questioning traditional knowledge systems and exploring new perspectives that extend beyond institutionalized education.

Learning Systems: A Multifaceted Approach
The theme "Learning Systems" acknowledges that knowledge is shaped by both human and non-human influences. Artists and theorists will examine historical, ecological, technological, and social frameworks, reflecting on how information is stored, accessed, and controlled. The festival will address topics including:

- Artificial Intelligence & Algorithmic Learning: How AI-driven systems shape knowledge production, visibility, and bias.
- Nature & Adaptive Learning: What we can learn from ecological systems and biological processes.
- Oral Traditions & Alternative Knowledge Networks: Exploring communal and indigenous systems of knowledge transmission.
- Power & Accessibility in Learning Systems: Who has access to knowledge, who controls it, and what historical narratives are preserved or erased?

By integrating perspectives from philosophy, science, and artistic practice, Vienna Art Week 2025 seeks to challenge dominant knowledge structures and encourage participatory engagement. Further details on these explorations can be found in Vienna Art Week's published insights at viennaartweek.at.

Open Calls: How to Participate
As part of its commitment to fostering new artistic contributions, Vienna Art Week is launching two open calls for participation in the 2025 program:

1. Open Studio Days (November 8 - 9, 2025)
Artists based in Vienna are invited to open their studios to the public, offering insights into their creative processes. Selected participants will be chosen by an expert jury, providing visitors with a unique opportunity to engage with works in progress.
2. Independent Spaces & Special Projects (November 7 - 14, 2025)
Curators, collectives, and independent art spaces in Vienna are encouraged to propose site-specific projects related to the festival's theme. These projects will be integrated into the official Vienna Art Week program, allowing visitors to explore experimental approaches to knowledge production through artistic practice.

Art as a Mediator of Knowledge
At the heart of Vienna Art Week 2025 is the recognition of art as a critical learning structure - one that questions dominant knowledge systems and encourages the public to actively engage with new ways of seeing and understanding the world. Through exhibitions, discussions, performances, and workshops, the festival invites audiences to rethink the politics of learning, the ethics of AI-driven knowledge production, and the alternative narratives embedded in artistic practice.

The information about this year's motto, along with further details on the open calls and application process, can be found on the festival's official website. With a deadline for submissions set for April 30, 2025, Vienna Art Week welcomes artists, curators, and thinkers to contribute to this critical exploration of knowledge and learning in contemporary art.


Image: A digitally generated image of a cityscape featuring the text 'Who controls knowledge?' The image was created by Fashion.at using Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash model on March 30, 2025.