It‘s done!

The "Museum of Migration" (MUSMIG), long prepared and longed for, finally manifests itself again! After a Corona-related pause for reflection, it is brought back to life by its collaborators. For an entire joyful day, over thirty people from the arts, academia, and activism will engage in performances, lectures, manifestos, conversations, and songs to ask how its present and future can be sustainably shaped. 

There is no question that MUSMIG is needed, because MUSMIG is the blind spot of traditional museums, the thorn in the flesh of nation-state institutions. MUSMIG is the gap that comes into the world performatively, the utopia that is only realized in the act of speaking, in the argument and in the celebration. MUSMIGrepresents an activist force that gives strength and energy to art and science. MUSMIG represents a loud reverberation, captured by the museum's own radio, hosted by Radio ORANGE 94.0. MUSMIG is the open question of whether it is even possible to think of a migrant subject that has as many rights as a state or an individual – and what this will mean for questions of curating in museums. MUSMIG is an attempt at migrant self-historicization. It is the search for a positioning of public institutions in the face of global wars, climate catastrophes, and the capitalist exploitation of people and nature, and the assertion of a relevant corrective to debates purely driven by identity-politics. MUSMIG, this is an explosive moment in which the view of history and culture restricted by national borders is shattered and the right to equality – in the museum as well as outside – is collectively demanded. 

The main question remains that of inclusion and exclusion: how will MUSMIG in the future create access to topics that are moving, that are pleasurable and at the same time remain subversive? And who will have access to MUSMIG in the first place, who will decide on the questions and presentations in the young institution?

There is a lot to be clarified in, through and with MUSMIG. That is why the young museum is also looking for its new team of directors. Nominations will be accepted on September 16, 2023 in the Aula of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna during the Great Plenum – personal applications are also possible. Become a part of MUSMIG!

Credits

Artists:

Elena Messner, curator

Ljubomir Bratić, curator

Gabriela Urrutia Reyes, curator

Participants:

Aleksandra Panek

Alice Fehrer

Andreas Görg

Andrea Vezga Acevedo

Anna Leder

Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur

Camilo Antonio

Construction Choir Collective

Deniz Güvensoy

Elena Messner

Fiona Steinert

Franz Prüller

Gabriela Urrutia Reyes

Georg Kö

Gizem Gerdan

Handan Özbas 

Irene Lucas

Katarzyna Winiecka

Kathrin Herm

Lia Kastiyo-Spinósa

Lisa Bolyos

Ljubomir Bratić

MA16

Mariama Nzinga Diallo

MIGRAZINE

Natalie Deewan

Oluchukwu Akusinanwa (aka LoveMore)

Persson Perry Baumgartinger 

Peter Melichar

Petra Sturm

Radio MUSMIG hosted by Orange 94.0

Radostina Patulova

Regina Wonisch

Renate Oblak

Robert Foltin

Rubia Salgado

Ruby Jana Sircar 

Stefan Nussbaumer

Topoke

UNDOK, Anlaufstelle zur gewerkschaftlichen Unterstützung undokumentiert Arbeitender

UrbanNomadMixes

Vlatka Frketić

Yoyo Sounds

Zoe Gudović

Zuzana Ernst