their meaning in the everyday life concerned, or their often circuitous route into the Museum. Even though the catalogue concerns 100 individual exhibits, the explanatory texts contain time and again momentary snapshots of Vienna’s history and the people inhabiting it. And – we hope – unexpected insights and cross-connections in line with the museum’s maxim, “Something New from the Past”. However, museum objects are not just “links” to pass on knowledge. The museum is also a “school in consternation and surprise”, in the words of the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk. After all, one is confronted with objects and styles of representation which tell of realities that seem alien and puzzling to today’s viewer. This already can be seen in exotic-seeming object descriptions such as “Funeral Helmet” or “The Breaking Wheel”. The Hamburg-based photographer Enver Hirsch has succeeded in bringing out this magical dimension. Hirsch, who became known in the 1990s with his work for design and trendy magazine media such as “Wallpaper” or “Tempo”, stands for a subjective, staged method of photographing objects which goes beyond mere documentary. Hirsch has been responsible above all for the pictures taken of three-dimensional objects. Graphics and layout were handled by Büro Fuhrer, which I wish to thank for its clear and elegant work. Thanks to their careful approach to the design, the selected “Highlights” were bound to be the stars – also in a visual sense – of this book. I wish also to thank the authors, all of them scientific experts at the Museum, for their descriptive texts, and most of all for the trouble they took to convey specialised information in a readable, vivid way. To prepare a publication of this type is a most
complex undertaking. A key role in this was carried out by Andrea Hönigmann, who attended to all technical steps in its production just as assiduously as the editorial fine-tuning. The main burden of editing the texts rested with Walter Öhlinger, the generalist among the historians at the Wien Museum. Thanks are warmly extended to them both, as to the translator Andrew Horsfield and all those colleagues at the museum involved in the production. So, finally, with “Highlights from the Wien Museum”, a publication is now available giving a feeling of the panoramic diversity of the exhibits to be admired at the Wien Museum Karlsplatz, which offers so many clues to let us explore the past of Vienna.
Wolfgang Kos Director, Wien Museum
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