Duration: 22.05. – 12.06.2026
Location: new jörg, Jägerstraße 56 1200 Vienna
This is not an exhibition, one might want to warn the visitors before entering Hannah Imhoffs show „Try before Museum.“ Before you step into the exhibition, expect the familiar neutrality of the white cube, and the certainty of what counts as an artwork, to dissolve. You, the visitor, will not be exempt.
With an awareness of the unequal foundations on which art institutions are built, financed, and sustained, Imhoff raises pointed questions about the art world’s status quo. She brings the rules and structures that organize exhibition spaces to the surface, making visible the viewpoints that are consistently excluded (see Eyelevel, 2026). By foregrounding that people are the system, she asks who maintains the hierarchical and exclusionary structures of the so‑called exhibition.
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation images of the preview of 'Try Before Museum' by Anthony Feghali.
AUDIO GUIDE
How to Move Trough Art
Text & Concept: Hannah Imhoff
Voice: Erik Meinhart
Move mindfully through the exhibition space.
Maintain an appropriate distance from the artworks.
If you have a whistle and see someone coming too close, use your whistle.
Take care of each other. Take care of the artworks.
Keep your voice low.
Do not run.
Do not touch the artworks — unless you have an official glove for that.
Do not disturb other visitors.
If you have earplugs, use them to be undisturbed by other people.
Behave appropriately at all times.
Adjust your body to the space.
Face Eyelevel.
Is it on your eye level?
Whose eye level is meant?
Bend your knees until the line is level with your eyes.
Find the “Authorised Viewing Area.”
Exhale as you sit down.
Slide back and forth until you find a comfortable sitting position on the bench.
Roll yourself through the space until the line is within your field of vision, at eye level.
Choose your own viewing position.
Take a deep breath through the nose.
Breathe out through the mouth and let it all go.
Remain where you are.
Or don’t.
Move the bench closer to the artwork.
A little closer.
Even closer than expected.
Sit on the floor.
Lie down.
Look at the artwork Eyelevel from below.
Stay there.
Notice how the line changes.
Notice how your body changes it.
Inhale as you stand up.
Now, in your own pace, find the Passsockel.
How does it look from above?
Pick it up.
Put it on.
First the straps over your shoulders, then the strap around your waist.
If you need support, ask another visitor.
Start moving through the space with Passsockel on your back.
How does it feel?
Do you feel watched by the other visitors?
How does that feel?
Take a look at the other visitors; hold their gaze.
Take your time.
Or don’t.
Reconsider what requires distance.
Reconsider what requires silence.
Decide how to behave in this space.
This is an audio guide.
This is also a script.
You may follow it.
You may ignore it.
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EVENTS
The exhibition was part of the Independent Space Index 2026, which comprised the following events:
