At the vernissage with musical performance, followed by an exhibition running for several days, the perspectives of the Abya Yala communities living in Vienna will be made audible and tangible. With the transdisciplinary artists claudia* sandoval romero and CarMiña Tarilonte Rodríguez, complemented by the ensemble ‘Quinteto Latinoamericano’, the communities living in Vienna will be given a voice.
With its “Spotlight” series, Salon of Cultures 2025 is placing an emphasis on transcultural dialogue through a series of focus countries. The series will present artistic contributions from different communities who live and coexist both in the respective focus country or region and in the diaspora in Austria. The aim is to build bridges between local and global perspectives, promote transcultural dialogue, and highlight the diversity of migrant and autochthonous forms of artistic expression.
Abya Yala is the name that many Indigenous peoples of Latin America use to refer to the continent, recognizing it as a space of cultural, historical, and linguistic diversity. Their ancestral traditions and artistic expressions, which represent an invaluable heritage, remain largely invisible in Europe.
This regional focus of the Salon of Cultures aims to make the perspectives of the Abya Yala communities living in Vienna both audible and tangible. With the transdisciplinary artists claudia* sandoval romero and CarMiña Tarilonte Rodríguez, complemented by the ensemble “Quinteto Latinoamericano,” their voices are given space to be heard.
In her* artistic and research practice, Austro-Colombian transdisciplinary artist claudia* sandoval romero explores feminisms*, horizontal forms of learning and deScolonial approaches with the aim of exposing power relations and opening up spaces for marginalized and silenced voices.
CarMiña Tarilonte Rodríguez is a Bolivian-Spanish artist based in Vienna whose practice combines disciplines across drawing, ceramics, field-recordings, sound, photo-performance, audiovisual media, and research. Her work explores, confronts, and renders spaces of memory, nature’s agency, productive and migrant bodies, territory, patriarchy, and decoloniality. Particularly in her research-based work on Quipus (Andean knotted-string devices/textiles), she uses poetic-critical approaches to deal with displaced and silenced forms of knowledge from the Andes, focusing on their visibility and reactivation.
The Quinteto Latinoamericano, founded in Vienna in 2020, unites classically trained musicians with deep Latin American roots to blend popular traditions with concert music. The ensemble performs repertoire from the late 19th century to today, featuring both well-known and lesser-known Latin American composers, while also premiering new works. Their mission is to create inclusive, culturally rich concerts that celebrate the diversity and vitality of Latin American music.
Exhibition Opening + Musical Performance: 11 December 2025, 6 pm
Exhibition: 12-14 December 2025
Opening hours: 12+13 Dec: 1-4 pm, 14 Dec:4-7 pm
Location: Kunstverein Kombinage, Johannagasse 29-35/15/R01, 1050 Vienna
Artists: claudia* sandoval romero, CarMiña Tarilonte Rodríguez, Quinteto Latinoamericano
Curation: Osama Zatar
Free Admission!
The Salon of Cultures is an interdisciplinary event and exhibition series which since 2010 has regularly provided an artistic presentation and interaction space for artists, a diverse audience interested in art and culture, actors from culture, education and science, with free admission in the Q21 of the MuseumsQuartier Vienna and at decentralised venues in Vienna in cooperation with cultural institutions and artists. EDUCULT is the initiator and organiser of the Salon der Kulturen.
Funded by the Department of Culture of the City of Vienna (MA7), Cultural Initiatives division and the Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.
Vernissage + Musical Performance: 11 December 2025, 6 pm
Exhibition: 12.-14. Dezember 2025
Opening hours: 12+13 Dec: 1-4 pm, 14 Dec:4-7 pm
Location: Kunstverein Kombinage, Johannagasse 29-35/15/R01, 1050 Vienna
Contact: marlene.kalnein(at)educult.at
Funding: Department of Culture of the City of Vienna (MA7), Cultural Initiatives division and the Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport
Free Admission!
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