Photo: Tebogo Moeti Lampert-Kirsch
Open Studio Day at Kunstquartier Shaffl
On 7 November, Kunstquartier Shaffl opened in Meidling with an Open Studio Day. Shaffl is the building where I have my studio, and that day the doors were open to anyone who wanted to come in and look around.
The building is the old Tröpferlbad, the former public bathhouse in Aichholzgasse. It now has seven studios shared by 13 artists, working across painting, design, graphics and fashion. The name plays on two words: “Schaffl”, the Viennese dialect word for a washtub, and the English “to shuffle”.
For the day I showed work from two projects. One was Systeme, an ongoing series I started in 2023. The other was _cryptograms, my zine about the aftermath of the attack in Vienna on 2 November 2020, which recently received the EIKON Award at OFF Bratislava.
What I enjoyed most was the conversations. Many visitors were people from the district: neighbours who had walked past the old bathhouse for years and were curious to see what it had become. Talking with them about the work and about the building was a good way to start this new chapter. It was a really nice day.
Thanks to the association behind Shaffl for organising it, to the other artists in the building, and to everyone who came by.