ALPINE ROPE TEAMS

When the Rax mountain range and alpine regions evolved into tourism hotspots in the beginning of the 20th century, the fine arts had no small part in it.
While the mountains had long attracted day trippers, the emerging array of winter sports now also started to become popular with a large audience.

Gustav Jahn and Otto Barth, two artists and mountain-loving “activists“ had a significant part in this development, forming “rope teams“ with other influential personalities, including Mizzi Langer-Kauba, Fritz Benesch and Camillo Kronich. They worked together to get the “tourist machinery“ going.

FROM MAKING NATURE ACCESSIBLE ALL THE WAY TO OVERTOURISM

With the Rax serving as its pivot, the exhibition tells the story of the exploitation of the alpine regions as a region of touristic interest all the way to overtourism. It’s a development that is tied to the phenomena and problems related to nature protection.

In paintings and photographs, the exhibition chronicles the stages and achievements of the driving activists and artists.

Curator: Wolfgang Krug