23.10.2026 – 30.05.2027
For over 30 years, Hermann Vaske has been asking the world’s most creative minds the same question: “Why Are You Creative?” More than 1,000 people have replied – some with sentences, many with drawings or artefacts, some briefly, others at greater length, some very personally, others bizarrely. In this exhibition, the Rupertinum presents the wittiest, most astonishing and most illuminating responses from Vaske’s collection. In doing so, we learn: What triggers creativity? What drives our world forward? But also: creativity has two sides. For it is precisely those things that are actually intended to stifle inventiveness – such as censorship, bans or compromises – that sometimes give rise to the most ingenious ideas. In the audiovisual section of the exhibition, Hermann Vaske speaks with the greatest artists of our time: Marina Abramović, Vivienne Westwood, David Hockney, Georg Baselitz, Björk, Lilith Stangenberg, Blixa Bargeld, Jeff Koons, Zaha Hadid, Yoko Ono, Oliviero Toscani, Christo, Damien Hirst, Jim Jarmusch, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel, Shirin Neshat, David Bowie and many more. He asks them: What sparks your creativity? And what stifles it? The answers revolve around themes such as spirituality, sex, money, fear, background and ambition – but also around censorship, self-censorship, bureaucracy and compromise.
Why Are You Creative? By Hermann Vaske
23.10.2026 – 30.05.2027
Museum der Moderne, Rupertinum
Wiener-Philharmoniker-Gasse 9
5020 Salzburg
www.museumdermoderne.at
