It is a precious habitat, home to both people and wildlife – a place where we can breathe deeply and reconnect with ourselves. And it is exactly this space we want to protect. How, you might ask?
The year 2026 marks a special milestone in the history of photography: exactly 200 years ago, in 1826, the world's oldest surviving photograph was created using a heliographic process.
This anniversary offers us an opportunity to look back on the history of photography while also reflecting anew on the role images play in shaping memory, understanding and life together. Throughout the year, a wide range of exhibitions and events invite visitors to explore these questions from different perspectives.
At Neustift Abbey, we are celebrating this anniversary with a diverse programme of exhibitions, artistic interventions and accompanying events. Contemporary photographers and artists engage with the medium in all its facets, opening up new perspectives on our relationship with one another, with the world around us and with the images that shape our perception.
RELATIONES – Photographic Explorations
27 June – 31 August
Featuring: Anna Anvidalfarei, Julia Bornefeld, Florian Borkenhagen, Karin Ferrari, Michael Fliri, Werner Gasser, Heinz Innerhofer & Christina Auer, Giancarlo Lamonaca, Katharina Mayr, Sissa Micheli, Anuschka Prossliner, Karin Schmuck, Michael Schmücking, Othmar Seehauser, Tiberio Sorvillo, Nicole Weniger, Gustav Willeit, Marko Zink.
Curated by Sandra Mutschlechner
COMMUNITAS – Traces of Community
8 May – 25 July
As part of Photography Year 2026, the Abbey Museum presents, under the patronage of Paul Renner and in collaboration with the photography museum WestLicht Vienna, contemporary photographic positions that engage with the theme of community and its meaning between cohesion, identity, ritual, and boundaries.
COMMUNITAS – Traces of Communitywith works by
FRANCESCA CATASTINI
LORENZO BRIVIO
PETER & MIRIAM RANEBURGER
CHRISTIAN EISENBERGER
NATURA VIVA
13 June – 31 July
This artistic work, consisting of photographs, stemmed out of deep concern for the small living beings with whom we share our world. Our behaviour towards animals is the result of anthropocentrism — a sense of superiority of the human species that has grown stronger over millennia and culminates in the relationship we maintain today with nature and our fellow creatures.
