„Sühnhaus“

'Sühnhaus' is the story of a luckless address: 7 Schottenring, 1010 Vienna. The Ringtheater once stood here. 400 people died here when it burnt down. The Emperor had the Sühnhaus built here in restitution, but nobody wanted to live in it.

During the research for the exhibition ‘Form follows Rule’, the Ringtheater fire of 1881 is a recurring point of reference. The Austrian fire regulations, among the strictest in the world, are apparently rooted in this tragedy, which has been inscribed in the collective memory like hardly any other. Was the Ringtheater for Vienna what Grenfell Tower might become for London?

Film screening: ‘Sühnhaus’, 96 min, AT 2016, D.: Maya McKechneay

Followed by a discussion with the director and Heinrich Krenn, Hauptbrandmeister a.D. der Wiener Berufsfeuerwehr municipal fire brigade

Moderated by Martina Frühwirth, curator ‘Form follows Rule’, Az W