In the exhibition “Himmelschwer” (Graz 2003—European Capital of Culture), she enchanted Graz with her four golden ladders (above the Landhaus and the castle, among others).

 After the renovation in 2011, she held her first solo exhibition in the then new rooms in the KULTUM with the exhibition “SHARING”: the Finnish artist Maaria Wirkkala.

At that time, a procession of animals balanced precariously at a dizzying height above the Minorite monastery courtyard - towards a place of longing, which they found in a child's drawing of angels by the then four-year-old Maaria. They can be found again in this exhibition - only hidden in the tower chamber, from which stones spill out.

Back then, the prancing animals were a metaphor for refugees - four years before the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ began to change the empathy of this continent. Where has this continent now tilted? Where has the entire globe gone? No one is now spared the dizzying abyss. Everything is different now.

But the exhibition title insists on the blank space: Not a penetrating ‘NUNMEHR’, but a bold assertion: NUN MEHR! You might hear the ‘sea’ in it. Even more so the existentially insatiable ‘more’, which in Latin means ‘magis’.  

Maaria Wirkkala had also uncovered a ‘permanent collection’ in the then new clay walls: The pictures from the early Renaissance—fragments of postcards—are still behind the scarred wall. 

This was the beginning of the museum‘s idea for contemporary art and religion, which is now becoming a reality with the latest extension to mark the KULTUM‘s 50th anniversary.

For this reason, Maaria Wirkkala—before the collection is shown for the first time at steirischer herbst from September 27, 2025—has now been invited again and asked to present a large exhibition in the newly adapted and interconnected museum spaces: NUN MEHR—MEANTIME is about the transcendence of time and space. It counters this threatening present with a profound poetry; the show connects different world views, even continents. It makes the dignity of places visible and allows us to sense a different present through art.

The large exhibition, which will fill all the new rooms, will open on Saturday, 10 May at 11 am. Read more >>

The artist will be present.
I would be delighted if you would come! It will be an extraordinary show.

I wish you a wonderful start to May,

Yours

Johannes Rauchenberger

Folder English Version >>

Maaria Wirkkala

born in 1954, lives in Espoo (Finland) and in the south of France. She has enchanted many places around the world. Some of them can be seen in a slide show at Cubus. Her work is almost always site-specific. She has taken part in the Venice Biennale three times, once representing Finland. She has worked with curators e.g. Harald Szeemann and Renè Block, who also opened the last retrospective at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere (Finland) in fall/winter 2024/25, which Sarianne Soikkonen curated. 
The works in the show in Graz come from the collection of the KULTUM MUSEUM Graz, the property of the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere and the artist, for whose loans we are greatly indebted.

Mariahilferplatz 3, 8020 Graz
T: +43 / 316 / 71 11 33 - 31
M: tickets@kultum.at
W: kultum.at