Model jellyfish hanging from the ceiling of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
When I think of well-curated spaces, I always come back to Vienna’s Naturhistorisches Museum (NHM), my personal pick for World’s Coolest Museum. Just like its twin, the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM), the NHM’s building was created and decorated for the collection it now holds. Or, at least it was created for the content that existed in the late nineteenth century, when the Hapsburg’s private royal collections of man-made (KHM) and natural (NHM) treasures were moved to be put on permanent public display for the first time. The two ornate, behemoth institutions still face each other across Maria Theresa Platz, existing not only to rehouse the royal collections, but to instill a sense of wonder in the visitors who pass through their doors.
From its inception, then, the collection and building have played off of one another. The decoration in each room contains both subtle and overt nods to the themes running through the collection, creating a complex, immersive experience. Contemporary curators have leaned in to this preexisting relationship between building and contents through the use of dynamic, even playful, display techniques, including hanging life-like models as well as actual specimens from the ceiling. In so doing, they give visitors an opportunity to see these animals from another angel, as if we were with the cuttlefish under the sea or watching pterosaurs out on the hunt. These overhead displays also encourage us to look up and notice the original decorative and architectural details we would miss if our eyes were exclusively kept around eye level. Elsewhere in the building, the inclusion of natural-history-themed contemporary sculpture as well as recreations of seldom seen moments of animal life (and death) keep visitors engaged in the collections themselves.
Whereas art museums tend to shy away from spaces or display techniques that might draw attention away from the individual works of art themselves and typically forswear theatrical installations altogether, natural history museums are not encumbered with the same theoretical baggage. As a result, natural history museums actually have more opportunity to create a kind of gesamtkunstwerk—or total work of art—that quite literally encompasses the entirety of their buildings. For my money, the NHM is the apotheosis of this potential and well worth the visit for anyone interested in art and architecture, as well as those drawn to natural history.
The contemporary sculpture Tiger-Headed Python (2012) by Daniel Spoerri, on display at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien in 2016. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Model cuttlefish hanging from the ceiling of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Display at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Giant model of a fish and parasite in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Display in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Model cuttlefish hanging from the ceiling of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Whale shark hanging over a staircase in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Display in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Model cuttlefish in front of a squid mural in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Model jellyfish hanging in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, its color and shape echoing the patterns in the ceiling. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.