主题：3月17日到9月20莫扎特展览会

The City of Vienna’s official exhibition on the occasion of the Mozart Year 2006 presents the composer’s life and work in the context of their social background: It conveys not only a portrayal of the courtly and aristocratic society across Europe, encountered by Mozart during his extensive travels, but also illustrates the dynamics of the period’s future potentials. And it sparklingly reflects the relevance this epoch, referred to as the Eclaircissement (Enlightenment), still has.

The Albertina will be adorned with a carpet by Franz West, and visitors will be welcomed by Klaus Pinter’s huge installation of a transparent montgolfier, Conquering of Air Space. Works of art by Valie Export, Günter Brus, Gelitin, Deutschbauer/Spring, and the Atelier West will be juxtaposed with art from Mozart’s days and of the Rococo, which in turn will be complemented by modern haute couture, Reinventing Rococo 2006 – an unexpected image of Mozart.

In the 1780s Mozart’s genius was unfolding in Vienna. His most intensive creative period – years of overwhelming success and remarkable wealth, but also of financial need, resulting from an inclination towards venturesomeness – took place in the Josephine climate of rapid reform. This open-minded, enlightened society was marked by the ideals of freemasonry. The large number of objects from the Albertina’s own holdings underlines its worldwide significance as a trend-setting collection, compiled by the freemason Duke Albert of Saxony-Teschen. It was a time when Europe presented itself as a supranational network – fast-moving, experimental, and innovative, a début des siècles, before the pragmatic rationality of the 19th century prevailed as a principle of reality.