The museum of contemporary art is based on a paradox. As a place of collecting and archiving, the museum is a space that preserves and makes visible the past, researches and classifies it, evaluates it, and contextualizes it. Collections are selections that follow a process of selection which presupposes art-historical criteria and, at the same time, influences them. Contemporary art, by contrast, is current: having just been created or still in the process of being created, its appearance in the museum places it on the threshold of becoming part of history, without yet being history itself.
With his “Space of the Present,” artist László Moholy-Nagy designed the first space dedicated to contemporary art as part of a museum in 1930 for the Provinzialmuseum (now the Landesmuseum) in Hanover, commissioned by Alexander Dorner. At the same time, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, under the direction of Alfred Barr, opened as the first museum dedicated exclusively to contemporary art. Since then, numerous museums of contemporary art have emerged worldwide, while MoMA has in the meantime also become a museum of historical modernism, in which what was once contemporary serves as the starting point for its own history of collections and exhibitions.
The question of what distinguishes a museum of contemporary art from a museum of historical collections—and what characterizes the architecture of a museum of contemporary art—has therefore been the subject of a century-long debate that spans artistic, curatorial, and architectural perspectives. This thematic diploma program offers students the opportunity to contribute their own perspective to this debate.
Methods:
Architectural analysis of the spatial design of the museum of contemporary art over the course of its 100-year history, based on written and drawn documents.
Investigation and documentation of the relationships between curatorial and architectural practice in the development of museum spaces for contemporary art, as well as the development of an independent and forward-looking design methodology based on these findings.
Application of the analyzed historical references by applying the identified and developed methodology to a self-selected thesis project for a museum of contemporary art.
Lecturer:
Wilfried Kuehn
Ulrich Huhs
Further Information:
Submission of Applications 09.10.2026, 18:00 Uhr per Mail an ulrich.huhs@tuwien.ac.at
Portfolio of Selected Projects
Statement of Motivation (one A4 page)
Outline of the Thesis Topic (one A4 page)
Termine:
ctober 7, 2026 – 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Introductory and informational session
This mandatory session is intended to introduce the topic and feature short presentations (5 minutes each) by students who wish to apply for this thesis topic.
October 16, 2026 – Announcement of selected diploma candidates via email
October 21, 2026 – 2:00–5:00 p.m. – First mandatory meeting with all participants
November 11, 2026 – 2:00–5:00 p.m. – Interim presentation 1
December 2, 2026 – 2:00–5:00 p.m. – Interim presentation 2
January 13, 2027 – 2:00–5:00 p.m. – Interim Presentation 3
April–October 2027 Exam Dates
The thesis consists of theoretical and design work.
Attendance at all seminar sessions and individual meetings
with interim presentations
Submission of analysis and design documentation to RG-Share.
Final presentation of the seminar results
Written documentation in accordance with the agreed-upon layout guidelines.