“On their own, these items may not seem like much. But together, they trace the paths we took to discover our annually changing Festival Headquarters. That’s what makes them valuable to us.”

The VIENNA DESIGN WEEK has been touring the city for two decades. For over ten years now, it has been transforming currently unused buildings into its Festival Headquarters. In this way, the festival rediscovers and reinterprets the urban fabric, encountering traces of its former occupants along the way. But it also writes itself into the history of these places.

In drawers, basements, and abandoned offices, one finds things that have lost their context: everyday items, mysterious objects, personal mementos, and curiosities. Over the years, a collection has emerged almost by accident: an archive of chance.

To mark the 20th edition of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, Alexandra Brückner and Gabriel Roland are exhibiting a selection of their favorite personal finds from the Festival Headquarters of the past ten years. Some tell stories, others pose riddles. Together with remnants of the festival program, they evoke the ephemeral spaces that have shaped the festival and quietly hint at the city’s changing landscape.