Credere alle Maschere - Romeo Castellucci - Vienna Festival 2026

The Republic of Gods couldn’t make do without him: the Italian director and creator of total art Romeo Castellucci, who questions the very essence of the sacred per se. His works are brimming with biblical, mythological and iconographic references, shaped by distance from and the presence of God, by rituals and liturgical forms. As a regular participant in the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen), his productions have triggered exultation and protest alike. Now he returns with his most recent installation performance. Fifty masks were designed for this show; each belongs to one person in the audience. Believing in Masks is a kind of riddle that reflects the individual gaze and questions the morality of watching itself. At the centre of the riddle, there is a famous chair – a chair that holds a long history, a story of art and death.

Recommended for ages 14+

Duration: approx. 40 min

program

Credere alle Maschere

An Masken glauben

Romeo Castellucci

Place

The Museumsquartier (MQ) is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner (Ortner & Ortner Baukunst). The renovation of the former court stables began in April 1998. Three years later, the Museumsquartier opened in two stages (June and September 2001). The total cost of the construction was 150 Million Euro (two billion Schilling).

The MQ is home to a range of installations from large art museums like the Leopold Museum and the MUMOK (Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna) to contemporary exhibition spaces like the Kunsthalle Wien and festivals like the Wiener Festwochen, an annual summer event that is headquartered in the MuseumsQuartier Wien.

Additional highlights include the Tanzquartier, an international, state-of-the-art centre for dance, the Architekturzentrum Wien, production studios for new media, artist studios for artists-in-residence, outstanding art and cultural facilities designed for children, and a variety of other events and festivals such as the renowned Viennale film festival, the ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, and many others. The Museumsquartier also hosts quartier21, which features a number of alternative art groups.