curated by 2025: Fragmented Subjectivity

Each autumn, 24 Vienna-based galleries invite international curators to respond to a yearly changing theme in the form of an exhibition, reflecting on the most pressing issues of our time. Under the title Fragmented Subjectivity, its 16th edition will take place between September 9 and October 4, 2025, transforming the city of Vienna into a hub for international critical discourse and artistic experimentation.

Rooted in collaboration between galleries and initiated to foster international exchange, curated by offers an overview of the multifaceted landscape of contemporary art.

Fragmented Subjectivity
Essay by Sophia Roxane Rohwetter
This year’s curated by festival investigates the contemporary subject and its dystopian character, torn between focus and distraction, seeing and being seen, characterized by alienation and optical failure: a subject of the unconscious.

“In a present of painful contradictions, the fragmentary allows us to think these contradictions and to give form to contradictory thinking … In a time of disaster, in which the disaster must not be named, the fragmentary can be a means to say the impossible and escape powerlessness.”

“If fragmented subjectivity– asks Rohwetter—continues to be the pathological mode of our times, how are recent economic, political, and aesthetic conditions shaping it, and what are its potentials, contradictions, and pitfalls?”

Read the full essay to learn more about this year’s topic.

Participating galleries and curators
Charim Galerie by Julie Boukobza
City Galerie by Josef Strau & Kristoffer Cezinando Karlsen
Crone Wien by Damian Lentini
Croy Nielsen by Karen Archey
E X I L E by Oliver Koerner von Gustorf
FELIX GAUDLITZ by Can
Galerie Martin Janda by Tessa Praun
Galerie Kandlhofer by DJ Hellerman
Christine König Galerie by Kathleen Reinhardt
Krinzinger Schottenfeld by ​​Ute Meta Bauer & Wejdan Reda
Krobath Wien by Dr. Fritz Emslander
Layr by Josef Strau & Kristoffer Cezinando Karlsen
Lombardi—Kargl by Kathrin Bentele
GIANNI MANHATTAN by Bianca Stoppani
MEYER*KAINER by Herwig Kempinger
Gregor Podnar by Simone Menegoi
Dawid Radziszewski by Reilly Davidson
Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder by Thomas Thiel
Shore by Otto Bonnen
SOPHIE TAPPEINER by Cory John Scozzari
Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman by Monika Bayer-Wermuth
VIN VIN Gallery by Marie Griffay
Galerie Hubert Winter by Vanessa Joan Müller
Zeller van Almsick by Camille Regli

About curated by
Founded in 2009 as a platform for artistic exchange, funded by the city of Vienna and led by its galleries, curated by is a unique initiative celebrating artists while fostering international critical discourse. Rooted in collaboration among galleries and taking the form of a city-wide festival, curated by provides exceptional exhibitions and an encompassing experience of Vienna and its galleries, welcoming visitors from around the world to the city.

New festival Directors
From May 2025, curated by has welcomed Attilia Fattori Franchini and Christina Linher as co-directors of the festival.

curated by 2025
Fragmented Subjectivity
Opening weekend: September 5, 11–9pm; September 6, 7, 2025, 11–6pm
Festival: September 9–October 4, 2025
curatedby.at

For further details about the exhibitions, the opening weekend program of events, artist-led tours, and podcasts with the curators, please visit curatedby.at.

curated by 2025 is kindly supported by the City of Vienna and the Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.