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The Song Contest is the last great relic of television that a media landscape radically transformed over the decades still indulges in; for a few days in May, Europe (and a little beyond its borders) pretends that everything is united, peaceful, and dazzlingly colorful like the oil slick on a dirty puddle.

The exhibition “A Song Can Be a Bridge” is, in part, an unreliable yet thoroughly affectionate homage to this, in every respect, incomprehensible mega-event; on the other hand, it is also a retrospective of bizarre moments from seventy years, a history of failures, misfortunes, and mishaps.

Tex Rubinowitz presents painted portraits of illustrious participants in oil on wood, in the tradition of votive images, and surrealist text passages from well-known and lesser-known songs embroidered on fabric, like agit-prop from a parallel world. The exhibition is accompanied by a limited-edition artist’s book on the theme of the ESC. A somewhat different, subjective approach to the spectacle.

With his legendary images of Vienna, Stefan Oláh guides us through the city. For Viennese and non-Viennese alike, the iconic sausage stands, gas stations, tram arches, and the city’s iconic buildings—both familiar and unfamiliar—are on display. In this exhibition on the Eurovision Song Contest, the artist presents his—and our—Vienna.

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