As part
of the Astoria Artshow, the University of Applied Arts Vienna offers a glimpse into current approaches to artistic research: On
view is the three-channel video installation Shaken Grounds: Hell is Empty (2026) by the Shaken Grounds Collective.
In addition, Open Circle – moderated by Alexander Damianisch (Department of Support Art
and Research) – brings artistic research projects from the University of Applied Arts into dialogue through speakers and artifacts.
Shaken Grounds: Hell is Empty brings together research conducted across volcanic
landscapes in southern Italy, the retreating Pasterze glacier in Austria, Icelandic environments, earthquake monitoring rooms
and performative field research. Moving between geological, somatic and philosophical registers, the evolving three-channel
composition explores how environmental instability registers in perception and the body, and how human action and responsibility
become entangled with increasingly shaken grounds.
Open Circles – Encounters on Sustainable Ecologies of Artistic
Research, moderated by
Alexander Damianisch (Department of Support Art and Research), extends the exhibition
into a participatory format. Current artistic research projects from the University of Applied Arts Vienna are introduced.
The encounter focuses respectively on artistic practice and artistic reflection as central elements of research, asking what
becomes newly possible and effective through them, particularly in relation to ecological, technological and societal conditions.
About Shaken GroundsShaken Grounds is an artistic research collective
exploring the relationship between geological, social, and psychic tremors. Nikolaus Gansterer, Mariella Greil, Victor Jaschke,
Peter Kozek, Werner Moebius, and Lucie Strecker are collaborating with artists and researchers from diverse fields.
Since
2024, the collective’s work has been presented internationally, including at MAXXI Rome, Berggruen Arts & Culture Venice,
Künstlerhaus and MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Expo 2025 Osaka, and the Iceland University of the Arts. In 2026, projects continue
in Gibellina, Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2026, with the current Creative Europe project culminating at the Museum
of Contemporary Art Zagreb in 2027.
Shaken Grounds was initiated with support from the Austrian Science
Fund (FWF) and BMEIA and is currently co-funded by the European Union through Creative Europe, in collaboration with the Angewandte
Performance Lab at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
