Image: MAK – Museum of Applied Arts
The MAK – Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna will open its doors free of charge on July 11, 2026, for visitors who come with the Austrian newspaper DER STANDARD under their arm. The museum says the one-day offer runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and includes access to Christoph Schlingensief. Es ist nicht mehr mein Problem!, the institution’s first comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist in Austria. DER STANDARD will also be distributed on site.
The promotion extends beyond a single show. On the same day, visitors can enter all other MAK exhibitions without admission cost, giving the museum’s broader program an unusually wide public reach. That includes GLANZSTÜCKE. Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection, Thomas Demand. Räume, die von gestern träumen, Vally Wieselthier. Bild und Ton, Ursi Fürtler. Textil – Abstrakt, Barbara Pflaum. Schaufenster des Alltags, Hype und Hochkultur. 75 Jahre Wiener Festwochen in Plakaten, Wien 1900 – Alltag. Gesamtkunstwerk, and the newly presented MAK Schausammlung Textilien und Teppiche.
The Schlingensief exhibition is the centerpiece of the offer. In the museum’s own description, Christoph Schlingensief (1960–2010) crossed the boundaries between art, theatre, film and politics and used a complex artistic practice to confront the pressures of the present. The MAK is mounting the exhibition together with the Wiener Festwochen and Gropius Bau / Berliner Festspiele. The museum frames it as an important first major presentation of Schlingensief’s work in Austria, situating a provocative and interdisciplinary figure within a major applied-arts institution.
The free-entry day also highlights the MAK’s role as a museum of overlapping collections and contemporary exhibition-making. By opening not only one marquee exhibition but its full program to the public, the institution is making a case for cross-disciplinary viewing: applied arts, design history, fashion, textiles, poster culture and contemporary art can all be seen in a single visit. A free audioguide is available at guide.MAK.at, extending access to visitors who want to move through the galleries independently.
The timing matters as well. Free-admission days tied to a newspaper promotion are a straightforward way to widen audiences, but here they also amplify a serious exhibition program. Schlingensief’s practice, with its collisions of art and politics, is being introduced alongside the museum’s holdings and guest exhibitions in a setting that encourages comparison rather than isolation. For Vienna audiences and international visitors alike, the day offers a concentrated view of how one institution is using a public-access initiative to draw attention to both a major retrospective project and the depth of its wider collection.
