This year, I feel magically drawn to the photo festival in Baden near Vienna, which features where we recently travelled as part of our #CreativElenaRTW round the world trip: Australia & The New World.
As in previous years (the international photo festival La Gacilly has been coming to Baden near Vienna since 2018), you can once again admire a world-class photo exhibition in Baden. All of the photographers, whose work can be seen in over 1,500 photographs throughout the city, have received prestigious awards such as the World Press Photo Award. This puts them in the top league of their profession worldwide. Images that get under your skin, raise important questions and invite you to reflect on your actions are once again on (free) display in the pretty spa town of Baden near Vienna.
Also: Don’t miss this season’s open-air cinemas, spa concerts, the “Genussmeile” Food & Wine Festival as well as the local World Heritage tours. Since 2021, Baden near Vienna is part of the UNESCO World Heritage “Great Spa Towns of Europe” together with several other spa towns in Europe such as Baden Baden in Germany, or Bath in England. All events that are really worthwhile!
Let’s go: Tourism Director Klaus Lorenz, who has been welcoming us to Baden near Vienna for many years, is happy to make time for us. We start in the Kurpark with a unique photographic journey through Germany – best to come and see it for yourself!
Highlights of the photo festival “Australia & The New World” in Baden near Vienna.
With over seven kilometres of city and garden route, it is almost impossible to make recommendations for visiting certain photographs: Everything is worth seeing, each image a photographic highlight in its own right, whose story deserves a closer look.
The pictures by Bobbi Lockyer, a young Australian photographer, really appealed to me. She focusses on First Nations Australians, especially families. Her themes: traditional birth on Country, parenthood, origin and identity. Powerful!
Matthew Abbott, another Australian photographer, draws attention to a sore point in our existence with his series “Fires and Counterfires”: devastating firestorms destroy huge areas of natural and living space worldwide.
Winner of the World Press Photo Award: Photographer Matthew Abbott with this image of a fleeing kangaroo during the devastating fires in Australia in 2019-2020.
For me, the artist Bobbi Lockyer and her sensitive portraits of indigenous Australian personalities are among the highlights of this year’s photo festival “Australia & The New World”.
Photographer Trent Parke in Doblhoffpark, Pelzgasse entrance on the façade of Café Ullmann: “Australia, Unfiltered”.
You can find more photographic highlights of the city route here, for example: Alfred Seiland’s Kluge Köpfe series is really exciting!
New in Rathausgasse: The story behind the paintings by Pia Moana Scharler and Craig Dillon comes to life via app! From the series: “The forest is the greatest artist”.
As in previous years, this is where all tours and information come together: The local visitor centre in the Leopoldsbad on Brusattiplatz in Baden near Vienna.
Back again this year: the floating galleries in the pond in Doblhoffpark as part of the festival’s garden route, here with impressive underwater photography from local waters by the “freshwater pope” Herbert Frei.
Photographer Tamara Dean “In search of a Garden of Eden” in the Orangery of the Rosarium in Baden near Vienna.
Just really worth seeing: “Australia & The New World” in Baden near Vienna.
Visiting Arnulf Rainer Museum: From historic women’s bath to international art museum.
After the photo exhibition, we visit the Arnulf Rainer Museum, which is honouring the Baden-born Arnulf Rainer on the occasion of his 95th birthday with an anniversary exhibition entitled “Das Nichts Gegen Alles” (Nothing Against Everything).
The visit is doubly worthwhile as the museum is housed in the historic women’s baths in Baden near Vienna. The former changing rooms and bathing rooms from the 19th century are an eye-catcher in their own right; the impressive contemporary art of the world artist is displayed above them. A bit like a picture within a picture! The tour through the art museum is a real feast for the eyes.
In the former women’s bathroom, my husband Georg takes a pose from a series in the current photo exhibition.
We marvel at the monumental works of the Baden artist Arnulf Rainer. Many of them express the tension between creation and destruction, beginning and end, death and resurrection in a bizarre and impressive way.
Fine dining & accommodation in Baden near Vienna.
The hotel where we are staying in Baden bei Wien is not unknown to us. We have already stayed here several times, enjoyed good food and slept well!
Hotel At The Park Baden is right next to the spa gardens, in close proximity to the city centre, with excellent service and good breakfast. As soon as we enter the hotel, we are greeted by a large photo on the wall as part of the La Gacilly Baden Photo festival.
Hotel At The Park: Always a good place to stay in Baden near Vienna.
It’s a 20-minute walk from Hotel At The Park to Heurigen Zierer restaurant, a friendly family-run restaurant in Weilburg Street in Baden near Vienna (right behind the thermal baths). Here, I enjoy my first chanterelles of the season; my husband and I, after months of travelling around the globe, enjoy good, delicious Heurigen home cooking again. Check this out.
Lovely local welcome at Heurigen Zierer in Baden near Vienna.
Sitting in the garden and enjoying typical, regional delicacies: that’s how I imagine a successful evening in Baden near Vienna!
Here are some more travel resources for planning your stay in Baden near Vienna:
- Fotofestival La Gacilly World.Natural.Heritage and the #BadenInWeiss White Party
- Fotofestival Orient in Baden near Vienna, its many roses and a unique crossover concert!
- Discovering the Römertherme Baden Spa Centre south of Vienna
Disclaimer: We have been invited by the city of Baden on this trip to visit #LaGacilly photo festival. All opinions are my own.