Mental Load und unsichtbare Arbeit

“Mental Load and Invisible Work” in Bad Ischl, at the Venice Biennale 2026 (European Cultural Centre, Palazzo Mora), and at the Angewandte Festival is dedicated to the often-overlooked burden of organizing, planning, and caring—activities carried primarily by women and marginalized groups. The artists reveal invisible structures of care, responsibility, and everyday organization, making tangible what otherwise remains hidden. Through performance, video, painting, sculpture, and installation, they develop diverse artistic strategies: household appliances and materials connoted as “feminine” are recontextualized, residues of domestic labour become sculptural material, gestures of housework are transformed into choreographies, and the “male gaze” is subverted through parody. Iconic historical and religious visual worlds are reread from a feminist perspective, opening up new ways of seeing power and representation. The project is based on an international open call by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Center for Didactics of Art and Interdisciplinary Education, in cooperation with Auerbach Art Management and Künstlerhaus Wien.