“Big City in Small Format: The History and Changing Meaning of the Viennese Postcard”

Today, the postcard is seen as a kitschy nostalgia carrier or as an irrelevant everyday object. But that was not always so. Curator Sándor Békési dares in his exhibition “Big City in Small Format. The Viennese Postcard” is the first attempt to process the history and the changing meaning of the postcard as the first global visual medium.

A special highlight is a video that shows the development of a single photo of the Prater Hauptallee. It has gone through 14 changes over the years. First a young girl is removed from the photo, then a dog is retouched, suddenly the whole family is gone. Instead, there is a carriage, which is ultimately replaced by automobiles. But also impressive images of St. Stephen’s Cathedral and Vienna’s Westbahnhof or the only photo of the fire in the rotunda in the Prater around 1937 attract visitors to the exhibition.

More than a mediator of tourist greetings

While sights such as the Wiener Riesenrad or St. Stephen’s Cathedral are still among the most popular Viennese postcard motifs, the exhibition also includes images of long-forgotten alleys, parks and squares. Using the example of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, a working-class suburb, the exhibition shows how almost every street in the area used to be a postcard motif. From the variety of motifs in this district, only the town hall remained.

At the same time, the many surviving postcards from the 20th century, which also depict side streets and suburban taverns, show that the greeting card was not primarily used for tourist purposes in the past, but also documented important events and was particularly popular with collectors. From many Viennese addresses, the postcards are the only surviving image sources.

Editing of the postcard

Within the framework of the exhibition, the specific properties and conditions of origin of the Viennese postcard will be explored. The various functions that the postcard has assumed over the course of history, for example as a means of communication and advertising, as a collector’s item or as an art form, are also to be addressed.

In addition, the exhibition should also present ways in which the postcard could be adapted for today’s use, how the traditional medium could continue to have an effect in an electronic medium. Currently you can often find them as free cards with punchlines and jokes at the toilet exit of bars or cafés. It is only sent in the rarest of cases. This is what social media is used for today.