<Art & Idea></Overview>
ART&IDEA was founded by Robert Punkenhofer in 1995 as a not for profit institution devoted to promoting and facilitating a cultural dialogue by organizing contemporary arts programs of international scope.
ART&IDEA has presented in its original former gallery space in Mexico City – jointly with Haydee Rovirosa – and its nomadic project spaces and curatorial offices in New York, Madrid, Berlin, Barcelona and in Vienna more than 80 exhibitions featuring the work of some of the most challenging artists of our times such as Vito Acconci, Uli Aigner, Maurizio Cattelan, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Cheryl Donegan, Rainer Ganahl, Lucy Gunning, Daniel Guzman, Emiko Kasahara, Peter Land, Marko Lehanka, Teresa Margolles, Jenny Marketou, Paul McCarthy, Lucy Orta, Damian Ortega, Erwin Redl, Maria Serebriakova, Santiago Sierra, Javier Tellez, Joep van Lieshout and Bill Viola. Many of these artists and others had their first major one person show at ART&IDEA.
Since 2002, ART&IDEA's mission gradually shifted from the ongoing exhibition schedule in its own nomadic gallery space to the offering of highly specialized consulting and management services for major artistic projects and special events with other renowned public institutions and/or corporate and private partners.
As such, ART&IDEA is responsible for the idea and curatorial development of the breathtaking Mur Island with Acconci Studio as the signature program for Graz 2003/Culture Capital of Europe as well as a special edition and publication series for the most important German weekly DIE ZEIT. Between 2004 and 2009, Robert Punkenhofer directed and curated Austria's official World Fair pavilion projects in Aichi/Japan, Zaragoza/Spain and Shanghai/China on behalf of Austria's Ministry of Economics and Labour and the Federal Economic Chamber with major artistic interventions by Herbert Brandl, Edgar Honetschläger, Walter Niedermayr, Lucy and Jorge Orta as well as Liquid Loft.
In 2005 ART&IDEA conceived Vienna Art Week, a unique annual art festival with the participation of all major Vienna based art institutions and a high calibre program of exhibition previews, lecture series and artistic interventions for an international expert audience, now taking place for the sixth year in a row.
In 2008, ART&IDEA took charge of the concept and execution of Flow – Festival of Culture and Science, a moving open space for intellectuals of the Danube region, realized in Novi Sad, Serbia as a joint initiative of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Erste Bank Foundation.
In 2009, ART&IDEA conceived and curated the exhibition A Way Beyond Fashion at apexart in New York, exploring important issues raised by the industry of fashion such as the projection of identity, the research for new technology and the question of sustainability in mass consumption.
In 2010, Robert Punkenhofer presented a comprehensive survey of recent Austrian furniture and interior design in the Italian design capital Milan, including site-specific interventions by leading designers and artists such as EOOS, Dejana Kabiljo, Walking Chair, Polka, Aldo Giannotti as well as Chris Haring and Andreas Berger from Liquid Loft, entitled Surprising Ingenuity – Austrian Design in Milano. The exhibition was organized on behalf of Advantage Austria and took place at the Fabrica Galvanotecnica Bugatti in Milan's Zona Tortona, in parallel to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.
ART&IDEA's programs have been reviewed by many publications worldwide, such as Artforum, Art in America, ArtNews, Art Newspaper, Art Nexus, Art Press, Curare, Flash Art, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The New York Times, Springerin, Der Standard; and television segments on ABC News, Arte, Canal 22, Canal 11, TV Azteca, 3SAT, Austrian Public TV and Radio as well as all major TV networks in Japan.For further information, please order our recent publication ART&IDEA – Connecting Different Worlds at Hatje Cantz Publishers or contact Reanne Leuning.