Edelbert Köb
Edelbert Köb, Vienna, 24 February 2026
“I was in the right place at the right time.”
It had really always been Edelbert Köb’s desire to do something in architecture—a desire that had long gone unfulfilled. But after attending the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and various subsequent activities as an artist, exhibition-maker, and teacher at the Academy, he unexpectedly found himself president of the Vienna Secession—and, as such, in a position to join forces with architects Adolf Krischanitz and Otto Kapfinger as well as the Secession’s new board to restore its heavily war-damaged building and reorient its programming. Köb was then called to Bregenz, where he led the highly successful effort to establish and internationally position the new Kunsthaus in its building designed by Peter Zumthor. There followed a period as director of Vienna’s mumok that included a renewed institutional reform project. And now, having retired 16 years ago, Edelbert Köb is finally finding time to contemplate questions that his busy life had hardly ever permitted him to pursue with the necessary consistency: Just what is art, nowadays? Is it actually a game? And if so: What rules of play apply to its presentation? To Köb’s mind, today’s universal scramble for visitor figures and dealings with a political caste that’s never been less interested in the arts and culture have seen a number of key parameters and responsibilities quite nonchalantly neglected
“I was in the right place at the right time.”
It had really always been Edelbert Köb’s desire to do something in architecture—a desire that had long gone unfulfilled. But after attending the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and various subsequent activities as an artist, exhibition-maker, and teacher at the Academy, he unexpectedly found himself president of the Vienna Secession—and, as such, in a position to join forces with architects Adolf Krischanitz and Otto Kapfinger as well as the Secession’s new board to restore its heavily war-damaged building and reorient its programming. Köb was then called to Bregenz, where he led the highly successful effort to establish and internationally position the new Kunsthaus in its building designed by Peter Zumthor. There followed a period as director of Vienna’s mumok that included a renewed institutional reform project. And now, having retired 16 years ago, Edelbert Köb is finally finding time to contemplate questions that his busy life had hardly ever permitted him to pursue with the necessary consistency: Just what is art, nowadays? Is it actually a game? And if so: What rules of play apply to its presentation? To Köb’s mind, today’s universal scramble for visitor figures and dealings with a political caste that’s never been less interested in the arts and culture have seen a number of key parameters and responsibilities quite nonchalantly neglected