Exhibitions views from Anaïs Horn, High Expectations, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, 2026. 

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The Austrian Cultural Forum New York presents High Expectations, a site-specific, multimedia installation by Anaïs Horn, in the Frederic-Morton-Library. The exhibition brings together historical design, feminist literature of the interwar period, contemporary writing, sound, painting, and photography to create an immersive, multisensory environment that invites visitors to experience history as a tactile and living presence. 

 

With High Expectations, Horn presents her first institutional solo exhibition in the United States. 

 

The exhibition takes its point of departure from the figure of Frederic Morton (born Fritz Mandelbaum), whose life and literary work—shaped by his 1939 escape from Vienna via Great Britain to New York—inform its engagement with the interwar period. 

 

At the core of the installation is the textile design Kokain (Cocaine, 1931) by designer Erika von Trauschenfels (born 1910, Berlin; date of death unknown), one of the few women represented in the Backhausen Archive (Leopold Museum, Vienna). Horn transforms the fabric, reproduced from the original design, into a large, padded textile piece covering the entire library floor, shifting the space into an intimate, sensorial environment that visitors are invited to enter without shoes. Through this gesture, design becomes physically and emotionally accessible, opening the library as a site of reflection.

 

A polyphonic sound installation interweaves historical texts by Austrian women writers of the the interwar period , including Vicki Baum, Alice Schalek, Mela Hartwig, Joe Lederer, and Ea von Allesch, selected in collaboration with Katharina Manojlovic (Literaturmuseum Wien), with newly commissioned contemporary responses by Alexandra Bondi de Antoni, Anna Gien, Katharina Manojlovic, Verena Walzl, Wendy Vogel, and Avital Ronell (New York University). These layered voices form a dialogue across generations, exploring themes of autonomy, resilience, visibility, and authorship.

 

Emeralite library lamps function as acoustic carriers, transmitting recorded readings of both historical and contemporary texts, realized in collaboration with artist and composer Eilert Asmervik. The resulting multi-voiced soundscape transforms the library into a resonant space of literary memory and contemporary reflection.

 

Complementing the installation is a series of 24 mixed-media works from Horn’s series The Call of the Void, initiated during her residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in 2025. Drawing on historical auction photographs, these works combine painting and photography, transforming images of furniture and decorative objects into vessels of memory and latent emotion, while opening subtle connections to psychoanalytic thought and the work of Sigmund Freud.

 

A second body of work, After the Interior, draws on archival images of Jewish apartments in Vienna, taken in 1937–38 by photographer Robert Haas (Vienna 1898 – New York 1997), who was often commissioned by Jewish residents to document their homes and belongings prior to deportations and forced displacement; the material is now held in the Wien Museum archive. Horn transfers the images onto delicate rice paper and partially overpaints them with white gouache, erasing the interiors while leaving only the books visible. Through this gesture, the photographs shift from document to reflection: the remaining books appear as carriers of knowledge that resist erasure.

 

High Expectations reflects on the cultural and political transformations of the interwar period and draws parallels to the present moment. Through the intersection of design, literature, sound, and image, the exhibition foregrounds overlooked female voices while opening a space for contemporary feminist discourse and collective listening.

 

Textile floor piece:

Kokain fabric (design by Erika von Trauschenfels, 1931, produced by Backhausen, Vienna), 100% wool; backing fabric, 100% cotton; padding, 100% recycled polyester; Velcro, made-to-measure.

 

Sound installation:

4 Emeralite library lamps, exciters, amplifiers, cables, iPods

Sound recording, arrangement, and installation: Eilert Asmervik

Texts by Ea von Allesch, Alexandra Bondi de Antoni, Vicki Baum, Anna Gien, Mela Hartwig, Joe Lederer, Katharina Manojlovic, Avital Ronell, Alice Schalek, Wendy Vogel, Verena Walzl

Edited by Anaïs Horn

Selection of historical texts curated by Katharina Manojlovic (Literature Museum Vienna)

Voices: Irmi Horn, Zoe Knable, Alexandra Bondi de Antoni, Anna Gien, Katharina Manojlovic, Avital Ronell, Wendy Vogel, Verena Walzl

 

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After the Interior I, 2026

Gouache and varnish on inkjet print on Hahnemuehle Rice Paper, from an archival photograph by Robert Haas: Wohnung László (Ladislaus) Berczeller, Bleichergasse 6−Arbeitszimmer, Vienna, 1938 (Archive Wien Museum), 40 x 40 cm.

 

After the Interior II, 2026

Gouache and varnish on inkjet print on Hahnemuehle Rice Paper, from an archival photograph by Robert Haas: Wohnung Ostersetzer, Vienna, 1938 (Archive Wien Museum), 40 x 50 cm.

 

After the Interior III, 2026

Gouache and varnish on inkjet print on Hahnemuehle Rice Paper, from an archival photograph by Robert Haas: Ansicht einer Wohnung entworfen vom Architekten Ernst Fuchs (Ernest Fooks), Vienna, 1937 (Archive Wien Museum), 40 x 40 cm.

 

After the Interior IV, 2026

Gouache and varnish on inkjet print on Hahnemuehle Rice Paper, from an archival photograph by Robert Haas: Wohnung Hayek−Wohnzimmer, Vienna, 1938 (Archive Wien Museum), 

40 x 40 cm.

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1–24 from: The Call of the Void, 2025–2026

found photographs, gesso, gouache, varnish, wood panel (oak, cherry, walnut, birch, maple tree) or glass panels, aluminium,

all 24 x 30 cm.

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Selected Readings

Curated by Anaïs Horn

Selection of books and articles from the artist’s library and the Frederic Morton Library

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Installation views: Marc Tatti