Gudrun Ratzinger
Gudrun Ratzinger is a freelance curator, author, and project manager, based in Vienna, Austria.
She studied Art History at the University of Vienna and Cultural Studies at the University of Art and Design Linz. In her dissertation Geschichte in den Raum stellen. Museografische Reflexionen im Werk von Marcel Broodthaers, Walid Raad und Mariana Castillo Deball [Situating History in Space: Museographic Reflections in the Work of Marcel Broodthaers, Walid Raad, and Mariana Castillo Deball] (2023), she explored the possibilities of installation and object-based historical representations in contemporary art.
Among others, Gudrun Ratzinger has worked at institutions such as Kunsthalle Wien, Generali Foundation, and Wien Museum. As a project manager and curator, she directed the permanent exhibition project Climate. Knowledge. Action! [Klima. Wissen. Handeln!] at the Technical Museum Vienna from 2020 to 2024. She teaches courses on practical and theoretical aspects of exhibition making and publishing at various Austrian universities such as University of Arts Linz, University of Klagenfurt, and Angewandte. University of Applied Arts Vienna where she also works in the department of Cross-Disciplinary Strategies. Applied Studies in Art, Science, Philosophy, and Global Challenges.
Her freelance curatorial projects are situated at the intersection of art, everyday culture, and cultural studies, and have been shown at, among others, Volkskundemuseum Wien (Zwischen den Dingen. Künstlerische Perspektiven zur materiellen Kultur der Gegenwart, 2021), Brennpunkt° – Museum of Heating Culture Vienna (Plan B. Wie Frauen Wien veränderten, 2020], Kunsthalle Exnergasse ("Löcher in der Wand". Anachronische Annäherungen an die Gegenwart, 2021), and the Universitätsgalerie im Heiligenkreuzerhof (inframince infra-mince infra mince – TransArts, 2021) . Since 2021, she has been the artistic director and co-curator (with Franz Thalmair) of the Kunstraum Lakeside in Klagenfurt, a site for the production and presentation of contemporary art, which aims to provoke critical reflection on aspects of the economy that concern society as a whole.
- Publications
- Host (ed./cur. with Franz Thalmair), Vienna: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2025.
- Hollow Ground (ed./cur. with Franz Thalmair), Vienna: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2024.
- A Sense of Relatedness (ed. with Franz Thalmair), Vienna: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2023.
- Future Perfect (ed./cur. with Franz Thalmair), Vienna: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2022.
- Kunstforum #270: exhibit! Ausstellen als künstlerische Praxis (ed. with Franz Thalmair), Cologne, 2020. (German)
- inframince infra-mince infra mince (ed. with TransArts), Berlin: DeGruyter, 2021. Exhibition: Universitätsgalerie im Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna.
- Links
