Evening art enjoyment: Every first Thursday of each month, the company PORR AG offers free guided tours and admission to the LEOPOLD MUSEUM

28.04.2022

Karl-Heinz Strauss and Hans-Peter Wipplinger in conversation

Hans-Peter Wipplinger: Since the beginning of the year, visitors have responded with great enthusiasm to the PORR Nights offered every first Thursday of each month. What made you decide to offer people free regular access to art and culture?

Karl-Heinz Strauss: I am delighted that this project is so enthusiastically received by the public! This shows once again how important it is to make such offers. People cannot survive without art. Art shows us where we have come from, it reflects what is important to us and it indicates which concepts of the future we are able to imagine. If we want people to see the bigger picture, if we want them to think in big ideas and images, we must offer them access to art as a matter of course. We must not allow culture to become something that is only available to the paying public. After all, Austria is a country with a substantial and rich culture and a great understanding of art. I am happy about this and want to make my contribution.

Hans-Peter Wipplinger: What motivated you to cooperate with the Leopold Museum, and how important is art patronage and the support of cultural institutions to you? What was the initial spark, what was your motivation?

Karl-Heinz Strauss: I personally have a great appreciation for the Leopold Museum and have whiled away many inspiring hours there. Part of our funding is invested into social affairs, sports and culture, and the Leopold Museum seemed like a good fit for us.

Hans-Peter Wipplinger: Who are your favorite artists and what inspires and impresses you most about their works?

Karl-Heinz Strauss: I am a great fan of abstract art – of artworks that are often a little younger than those that can be admired at the Leopold Museum. In my office, I keep a beautiful painting by the Austrian painter Markus Prachensky – an important exponent of Art Informel of the post-war era. I also have a work by the Slovenian-Austrian painter and graphic artist Drago J. Prelog which was created using what is known as the “Prelography technique”. And I must confess that I have a particular weakness for Jeff Koons’s Balloon Animals. Two of them decorate my office: the orange dog and the purple rabbit. These works exude a playfulness and lightness that appeals to me and makes me smile.

Hans-Peter Wipplinger: How important is art within the company PORR AG? Are you regularly surrounded by art?

Karl-Heinz Strauss: Art is important to PORR especially in terms of art funding, as in the cooperation with your museum. Furthermore, our company has erected, refurbished, renovated and redeveloped numerous cultural institutions over the past 150 years, including opera houses, concert houses and museums.

The next PORR Night takes place on 5th May. The following free one-hour guided tours through the permanent presentation Vienna 1900 will be held at 6.30 pm and 7 pm:

THE VIENNA RINGSTRASSE AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

The construction of the 5.3-km boulevard under Emperor Franz Joseph not only changed the face of the city but is also exemplary for the large-scale urban development projects carried out in Vienna around 1900. Along the new traffic routes, public and private buildings were erected and decorated by the great artists of the time.

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