The Fest: Between Representation and Revolt

From masquerade balls to political celebrations, this exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna (14 December–7 May 2023) revels in the history of festive occasions. The display brings together more than 650 objects including the rarely exhibited 16th-century Halle Jewellery which once adorned the wedding dress of Maria Christina of Austria. Other highlights include a selection of archival photographs by André Ostier documenting high-society parties of the 1950s, among them the famous Bal Oriental in Venice, 1951, where guests including Christian Dior and Pierre Cardin pictured wearing elaborate masks, and the Winter Ball in Paris (pictured). Also on show is a Venetian style chandelier by the contemporary Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans, which transmits excerpts from a book on astrophotography by Siegfried Marx in Morse code. Find out more on MAK’s website. 

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Rosette from the Halle Jewellery (1570–80), Munich court workshop. Photo: © MAK/Nathan Murrell

Costume belonging to the Countess Mathilde von Attems (c. 1898). Photo: © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic

Vicomtesse de Robes and Pierre Celeyron photographed at the Winter Ball, Hotel Coulanges, Paris, 30 December 1958, by André Ostier. © A. & A. Ostier