The art museum celebrates its tenth anniversary with a theme that was a central idea and leitmotiv of the overall museum’s concept from the start: the engagement with “happy rooms”.  Do they exist and how are they arranged, what is their secret? Why do we perceive the view of untouched nature as pleasant and soothing for the organism?

“To create beautiful things, you have to be happy”

the museum’s founders Makis and Heide Warlamis declared their motto for all activities. That is why the multifaceted exhibition deals with the secrets of rooms by showing a selection of objects of the complete works of both artists.

Furniture, carpets, paintings, sculptures, design- and ceramics objects, films, and texts create friendly rooms to feel comfortable and happy.

Some examples from the international highlights and the multifaceted room installations. The Vienna porcelain series by Heide Warlamis was even used in Hollywood: in the movie Boomerang, Eddie Murphy, Halle Berry and Grace Jones drink from the elegant cups.

In the context of the cooperation project Waldviertel design, Makis Warlamis developed designs for 23 companies located in the Waldviertel. The results were presented in Gmünd, Dornbirn, Brünn, Vienna, followed by a major exhibition in New York, with the title “To Live – Contemporary Austrian Design” in 1993. The “massage street” is a particularly liked design, now and then.

Even fashion by Warlamis must not be missed, beginning with the “city dresses” (Vienna festive weeks 1982), followed by the artistic drafts of the 90s and beyond, created to be a communicative advertising space for your own personality.

Inspired by Friedrich Schiller’s ‘ode to joy’ you can arrange paintings from Makis Warlamis’s cycle ‘People of the World.’

In the poetry room the beautiful paintings of women fuse with Makis Warlamis’s ‘Metaphysika’ poems. The primary room of the exhibition is the cave room, presenting a light-video installation by Karin Antoni. The major room is dedicated to scenarios of contact, the theaters, the big foundlings (called ‘Restling’ in Austria) of the Waldviertel and the ‘head arks’ by Makis Warlamis.

In another joyful room, freed from the burdens of every day life, you are invited to a ‘dinner with Heide Warlamis and Mona Lisa’…….

The idea to create a “friendly room” also led the design of the sculpture park which became a space of harmony of the evergrowing nature, achitecture, and art.

The exhibition “Happy rooms” runs from March 23rd, 2019 to January 12th, 2020.

A varied programme including talks, readings, puppet theater, creativity workshops, and art classes for children, adolescents, and adults accompany the annual exhibitions.