Good Collecting – Bad Collecting

On 29 April 1876 Emperor Franz Joseph I signed the legal documents establishing the Natural History Museum Vienna, and on 30 April 1876 he appointed the geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter as its first director. At that time, the museum building on Vienna's Ringstrasse was already under construction – it was finally opened in August 1889.
 

Today, the museum houses one of the world's most important natural science collections with more than 30 million objects. The NHM Vienna is a unique archive for the origin and development of the Earth and life. It documents the history and structure of our planet, shows the diversity of life on Earth, and provides insight into the development of humankind. Like no other natural history museum, it explores the entire spectrum of nature in the past and in the present through biological, geological, paleontological, mineralogical, anthropological, prehistoric, and historico-cultural objects.
 

The NHM Vienna is marking its 150th anniversary with a critical review of its own history. The joy of collecting and the pleasure of discovery and research, which continue to drive scientists until today, are contrasted with the darker side of collecting and collections. 
 

Some objects appear Janus-faced, as they are scientifically unique but at the same time burdened by their problematic acquisition context. Were the famous expeditions of the 19th century an honorable attempt to increase knowledge and acquire exotic objects for the imperial collections – or was a colonial agenda the real motivation? How were objects that came into the museum's possession illegally during the Nazi era dealt with, and how should pieces that entered the collections in an ethically questionable manner be evaluated? Depending on one's point of view, an object can function as a sober carrier of scientific information or as a manifestation of questionable collection methods. Depending on one's perspective, an object can be materially valuable and at the same time of little scientific interest. Conversely, an inconspicuous, tiny insect can be a unique specimen whose loss cannot be measured in monetary terms.  
 

This ambivalence, which manifests itself in the NHM Vienna and its collections, is the leitmotif of the exhibition and shapes its architecture and design. The design team from breadedEscalope and Benedikt Haid deliberately took unexpected positions in order to illuminate the collections and have selected objects from an unusual perspective and recontextualized them. The result is an exhibition that breaks with conventional viewing habits and expectations and, despite the complex themes, conveys the curators' intense and often affectionate connection to “their” collections. It is only through the work of scientists and the application of new methods that new questions continually arise, revealing the significance of the collections for our modern information society.
 

The cabinets focus on the history of the museum since its beginnings under Maria Theresa and Franz I Stephan of Lorraine and highlight iconic moments in the collection. From the first collection catalogs to the founding document of the NHM Vienna signed by Emperor Franz Joseph I and a historic spittoon from one of the exhibition halls, the variety of objects extends to handprints left by climate activists, which impressively show the changes society has undergone over the last 150 years.
 

Another focus of the cabinets is the other locations of the NHM Vienna: the National Park Institute Donauauen in Petronell, the historic salt mine and archaeological research center in Hallstatt, and the pathological-anatomical collection in the so-called Narrenturm in Vienna. In the 20th and 21st centuries, artists began to engage more and more with the museum and its collections, opening up completely new perspectives. The creative spectrum of works, which will be curated as a separate gallery within the exhibition, ranges from painting and photography to performance and the use of artificial intelligence.
 

The two main halls are entirely dedicated to the theme of collecting in all its complexity and ambivalence. The grid-like arrangement of one hall reflects the idea of ordering and systematizing. Individual thematic complexes are assigned to the grid nodes, their diversity highlighting the complexity of the collections. The other hall abandons this strict structure and – in the literal sense – encourages a change of perspective(s) with the help of a few iconic objects.
 

The digital museum forms the end – or the beginning – of the tour. Here, interactive animations project high-resolution 3D models of collection objects and raise the question of whether the digital object can be an adequate substitute for “the real thing” and what this could mean for the “museum of the future.”