<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 it´s original former gallery space in Mexico City – jointly with Haydee Rovirosa - and it´s nomadic project spaces and curatorial offices in New York, Madrid, Berlin 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 Leishout and Bill Viola. Many of these artists and others had their first mayor one person show at ART&IDEA.
Since 2002, ART&IDEA´s mission gradually shifted from the ongoing exhibition schedule in it´s own nomadic gallery space to the offering of highly specialised consulting and management services for mayor 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. Since 2004, Robert Punkenhofer directs and curates Austria´s official World Fair pavilion projects in Aichi/ Japan, Zaragossa/ Spain and Shanghai/ China on behalf of Austria´s Ministry of Economics and Labour and the Federal Economic Chamber with mayor artistic interventions by Herbert Brandl, Edgar Honetschläger, Walter Niedermayr and Liquid Loft.
In 2005 ART&IDEA conceived Vienna Art Week, a unique annual art festival with the participation of all mayor Vienna based art institutions and a high caliber program of exhibition previews, lecture series and artistic interventions for an international expert audience.
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, realised first in Novi Sad, Serbia as a joint initiative of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Erste Bank Foundation.
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.