Ringturm Wrapping

Art & culture

 

A summer highlight

Since 2006, Vienna's Ringturm, our corporate headquarters, has been transformed into an oversized screen during the summer months. By commissioning renowned Austrian and international artists for this art project, the Vienna Insurance Group is making an important contribution to art in public spaces, promoting artists and contributing to the colourful cityscape of Vienna's inner city.

Discover all the artists who have already contributed:

Facade Art of the Wiener Ringturm 2023 showing the work "Wandering Icebergs" by Slovenian artist Vanja Bućan in the middle of Vienna's city centre

Wandering icebergs – Vanja Bućan

In 2023, Slovenian artist Vanja Bućan transforms the Ringturm in Vienna into a larger-than-life artwork called "Wandering icebergs".

An initiative of Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, the Ringturm is transformed this summer into what at first glance looks like an idyllic summertime scene showing bathers on a sandy beach. But the clouds in the background and the sharp silhouettes that jump out from Slovenian artist Vanja Bućan’s design hint at a change on the horizon. They reference the icebergs that give the work its name and are intended to turn the spotlight on climate change and its devastating consequences. The 4,000m2 artistic covering is made up of a total of 30 printed netting sheets, each around 3m wide and up to 63m long.

I want my painting to highlight nature’s inherent potential for change. Like the people in my picture, all of us are only tiny fragments of a larger context. Wandering icebergs have become a symbol of climate change. For me, they also represent just how unpredictable events can be – at this particular moment on the beach, it’s not entirely clear how the day will turn out for the bathers.
VANJA BUĆAN Artist
Ringturm wrapped 2022; Facade Art: With one another from Dóra Maurer

With one another - Dóra Maurer

In 2022, Hungarian artist Dóra Maurer transforms the Ringturm in Vienna into a larger-than-life artwork called With One Another – sending out a powerful message of hope after two years shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Entitled ‘With One Another’, the 4,000 square metre artwork is made up of a total of 30 printed netting sheets, each around 3m wide and up to 63m long. Diagonally intersecting stripes in a spectrum of bright, cheerful colours trace a path across the facade of the buildings on the Ringstrasse boulevard, overlooking the Danube Canal, in Vienna city centre. Created especially for the wrapping of the Ringturm, the artwork’s origins go back to an elaborate system of geometric and chromatic elements devised by Dóra Maurer some 30 years ago, which she has continued to develop in the intervening years.

In my piece, various different colours dovetail together – a reference to the array of voices that characterise Central Europe. The vivid composition is designed to give the linear architecture of the Ringturm a dynamic edge, and to radiate colour from the building onto the surrounding area. A visual stimulus by the Danube Canal in summertime, but also an anchor that sends a signal of hope across national borders.
DÓRA MAURER Artist
Ringturm wrapped 2019; Facade Art:  Future Dreaming from Daniela Kostova

Future Dreaming - Daniela Kostova

In 2019, the 4,000 square metre artwork adorning the facade of the Ringturm throughout the summer – comprising a total of 30 printed netting sheets, each around 3m wide and up to 63m long –  is "Future Dreaming" by internationally acclaimed New York-based Bulgarian artist Daniela Kostova.

On the side of the Ringturm facing the Danube Canal, a toddler is looking at us with alert eyes. She is dressed in a space suit. A white dove is landing on her helmet, its wings still spread. The bird, symbolising the dream of flight, features prominently in various emblems of space missions. The toddler’s empirical world is shaped by new encounters: even before she can walk, she is dreaming of the big, wide world. Her toy, a mobile with flying celestial bodies, is depicted on the back side of the building. It indicates a change in perspective: gazing at the Earth from far away, at the fragility of our planet, the environment in which the children of the future will live.

Born in Sofia in 1974, Daniela Kostova's work encompasses a number of different disciplines and focuses on comparing and contrasting different cultural models, looking for the points where they overlap and the hybrid forms this gives rise to.

In my work I have repeatedly dealt with the question of what ‘safe play’ signifies in various cultural and social contexts. The site-specific display of this particular project adds another dimension to the subject. What interests me here is the wide angle through which we can take a look at the future of our children.
DANIELA KOSTOVA Artist
Ringturm wrapped 2018; Facade Art: I saw this von Gottfried Helnwein

I saw this - Gottfried Helnwein

A special anniversary – 100 years since the establishment of the First Austrian Republic – and an extraordinary artist: Helnwein’s work “I saw this” will transform Vienna’s Ringturm into an imposing reminder of the evils of terror and repression in summer 2018.

In 2018 it is once again the turn of an Austrian artist to design the wrapping of the Ringturm in central Vienna. Born in the Austrian capital and known for his controversial works, Gottfried Helnwein is making an impassioned plea against violence, terror and fear for the Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein initiative.

The steady stream of negative headlines on terrorist attacks and war that confront us in the media only achieves one thing: feelings of helplessness and bewilderment. When art addresses the horrific, the effect is the exact opposite.
GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN Artist

Vision - Mihael Milunović

This summer, the Ringturm was transformed into an eye-catching work of art for the tenth time. Serbian artist Mihael Milunović’s monumental installation brought a mountain massif to the heart of the Austrian capital. “Vision” by Mihael Milunović represented a cultural dialogue between Austria and Serbia. It also underlined the southeast European country’s significance for the Vienna Insurance Group – Wiener Städtische osiguranje a.d.o. Beograd has grown to become one of Serbia’s leading insurers. 

My work ‘Vision’ deals with the individual and their relationship to the group, driven by their pursuit of transcendence. The red train which goes up the blue mountain is an allegory of solidarity and perseverance – qualities that come in useful when climbing a steep mountain. The funicular is the vehicle that takes us to a better understanding of ourselves. The antenna on top of the mountain is a very important element for me – it is a symbol of the willingness to share positive energy with others.
MIHAEL MILUNOVIĆ Artist

Unburdened - Ivan Exner

In the summer months of 2016, the Ringturm was transformed into a monumental art installation for the ninth time. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the VIG’s Czech Group company Kooperativa, the Czech painter Ivan Exner designed the netting sheets enveloping the Ringturm. Exner's work, entitled “Unburdened”, shows a boy standing on a hill flying kites. The boy is a symbol of ease and carefreeness. Another important element in the painting is the endless sea horizon lying before the child. Instead of the office building, passers-by will gaze at the open sea in the middle of a densely built-up area of their city. Between the child and the distant horizon lies endless vastness.

Every year, the Ringturm’s wrapping conveys new approaches and perspectives and invites people who see it to let their minds wander. In 2016, Ivan Exner presents his own vision of growth and future, his work reflecting a part of our company’s history. “Unburdened” symbolizes and celebrates the 25th anniversary of our Czech Group company Kooperativa.
IVAN EXNER Artist

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Summer Pleasures - Tanja Deman

On its 60th birthday in 2015, the Ringturm was attracting the attention of the international art scene. For the eighth time, Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, main shareholder of Vienna Insurance Group, wrapped the Ringturm – in 2015 with the work “Sommerfreuden“ (“Summer Pleasures”) by Croatian artist Tanja Deman. During summer, the building once again made its mark on the city’s appearance with a supersized art installation.

Fascinated and simultaneously inspired by the diverse waterscapes of Vienna, ’Sommerfreuden’ creates a fluent and smooth passage between two worlds, constructed landscape and natural.
TANJA DEMAN Artist

Veil of Agnes - Arnulf Rainer

Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein is continuing the tradition of covering the Ringturm with large-format works of art with Arnulf Rainer’s “Veil of Agnes” (Schleier der Agnes). Rainer’s work will adorn the facade of the Ringturm this summer from 16 June. The high-visibility art project, set to take place this year for the seventh time, is a declaration of the long-standing connection between Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein and the Klosterneuburg Monastery.

Ties - Dorota Sadovská

The traditional wrapping of the Ringturm during the summer months highlights the clear and expressive commitment of Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein – the main shareholder of Vienna Insurance Group – to its role as a facilitator of cross-border cultural dialogue. 2013 the young Slovak artist Dorota Sadovská was commissioned to create “Ties”, an art installation which will be used exclusively for covering the façade of the Ringturm. Dorota Sadovská is the second artist from a neighbouring country transforming the office building steeped in tradition into an “Art Tower”.

The theme of my project are reciprocal ties, the joy we find in moving together and meeting. A female troika symbolised how to manage material resources in an optimal way – taking, giving, returning – already in classical Greek art. The symbolism of ‘Ties’ is also reflected in the concept of insurance as mutual sharing.
DOROTA SADOVSKÁ Artist

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Society - László Fehér

Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, the main shareholder of the Vienna Insurance Group, is once again demonstrating its commitment to art in public spaces with the fifth artistic decoration of the Ringturm. The tower’s prominent position on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, at the northern end of Franz-Josefs-Kai where the ring opens onto the Danube Canal, offers a perfect opportunity to expose the Viennese public and the city’s many visitors to contemporary art. László Fehér’s work “Society” transforms the Ringturm from an office block into an art tower. This is the first time that an artist from one of Austria’s neighbouring countries has been commissioned to produce an exclusive work for the tower’s transformation.

“The Ringturm appears to embody the history of the last 60 years. In creating the work, I have attempted to find an abstract formal system that could characterise any decade from the 1950s to the 1990s and is also relevant to the present day. The figures represented in Society are permeated by light, air and the historical background – chiefly of Central and Eastern Europe – in which they exist.
LÁSZLÓ FEHÉR Artist

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