January 2025
MAK Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna

For a long line of male directors, the director’s office at the MAK Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna—the “Direktion”— served as a representative space and an expression of their power. The museum’s first female director preferred a smaller office closer to her team and opened up the room that had originally been reserved for meetings of the board of trustees to everyone. Since December 2024, the room has been called the “Directorate for All”—“Direktion für alle”—and after its refurbishment by mischer’traxler studio  is now used for workshops, performances and smaller talks, as well as a relaxation room where exhibition catalogs are available along with free drinks.

Amelie Klein was a guest at the Direktion für alle and, as part of a series of talks called Conversation Pieces, answered questions such as “Why is democracy in crisis and what updates does it need? How can we enable everyday democracy and strengthen our ‘democratic muscles’? How can cultural institutions be empowered to truly include everyone through participatory design processes?”