This summer, raising flags, a project by museum in progress, travelled across three very different settings: the Cēsis Art Festival in Latvia, Ladakh in India, and Vienna.
At the Cēsis Art Festival, ten text-based flags were presented by artists including Ghada Amer, Minerva Cuevas, Shilpa Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Maurizio Nannucci, Sophia Pompéry and Erwin Wurm, alongside Martin Grandits, Christian Robert-Tissot and Krišs Salmanis. The flags brought words, statements and visual language into the public space, turning the familiar form of a flag into a medium for artistic expression.
The project then moved to Ladakh, where flags were installed across six locations—Basgo, Heniskot, Lamayuru, Likir, Mulbekh and Nurla—as part of the sā Biennale, described as Asia’s largest contemporary land art group exhibition. Participating artists included Anna Jermolaewa, Jitish Kallat, Peter Kogler, Agnieszka Kurant, Skarma Sonam Tashi and Grazia Toderi.
Among the works presented was Transient Mountains by Indian artist Skarma Sonam Tashi. Shown in Ladakh at an altitude of 3,600 metres, the work subsequently travelled to Vienna, where it was installed on the Stubenbrücke and remains on view for a short time.
Curated by Alois Herrmann and Kaspar Mühlemann Hartl, raising flags brings together artists, institutions and locations through a simple but potent public symbol. From a contemporary art festival in Latvia to the dramatic landscape of the Himalayas and an urban bridge in Vienna, the project allows each setting to shape the way the works are encountered.
The project is realised through collaborations with local and international cultural partners, including the Cēsis Art Festival, sā Biennale Ladakh, Quiet Art Movement, The Gujral Foundation, the Austrian Embassy in New Delhi, Bildrecht and others.