El Anatsui designed the New Iron Curtain at the State Opera House in Vienna

Sunday, October 5, 2025
El Anatsui designed the New Iron Curtain at the State Opera House in Vienna

The jury (Daniel Birnbaum, Bice Curiger and Hans-Ulrich Obrist) selected the artist El Anatsui for the twenty-eighth "Iron Curtain" at the Vienna State Opera.

His work "XOHANAMI" can be seen by the audience before and after the performances and during the intermissions from September 30, 2025 to the end of June 2026. Anatsui's title "XOHANAMI" means "Receive our song" in Ewe and establishes a connection between the local audience and the artist's cultural roots.

"Eiserner Vorhang" is a series of exhibitions conceived by museum in progress and realized in cooperation with the Vienna State Opera and the Bundestheater-Holding. Since 1998, the project has transformed the iron curtain of the main stage into an exhibition space for contemporary art. The large pictures (176 m²) are fixed to the fire protection wall with magnets.

Previous artists:

  • Kara Walker (1998/99)
  • Christine and Irene Hohenbüchler (1999/2000)
  • Matthew Barney (2000/01)
  • Richard Hamilton (2001/02)
  • Giulio Paolini (2002/03)
  • Elmgreen & Dragset (Komische Oper Berlin, 2002/03)
  • Thomas Bayrle (2003/04)
  • Tacita Dean (2004/05)
  • Maria Lassnig (2005/06)
  • Rirkrit Tiravanija (2006/07)
  • Jeff Koons (2007/08)
  • Rosemarie Trockel (2008/09)
  • Franz West (2009/10)
  • Cy Twombly (2010/11)
  • Cerith Wyn Evans (2011/12)
  • David Hockney (2012/13)
  • Oswald Oberhuber (2013/14)
  • Joan Jonas (2014/15)
  • Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (2015/16 and 2019 at the Opéra de Théâtre Metz)
  • Tauba Auerbach (2016/17)
  • John Baldessari (2017/18)
  • Pierre Alechinsky (2018/19)
  • Martha Jungwirth (2019/20)
  • Carrie Mae Weems (2020/21)
  • Beatriz Milhazes (2021/22)
  • Cao Fei (2022/23)
  • Anselm Kiefer (2023/24)
  • Pipilotti Rist (2024/25)

Main Image: El Anatsui, XOHANAMI