Ringturm Wrapping

This year’s Ringturm wrapping centers around the celebration of the Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein’s 200th anniversary. Renowned artist Johanna Kandl brings the insurance group’s success factors to life across 4,000 square meters.

The cultural flagship project of the Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein holds special significance in 2024, as December 24 marks the bicentennial of its founding. To highlight this milestone anniversary, the Versicherungsverein and the insurance group’s companies reflect upon their historical roots and the values that have guaranteed their many years of success: courage, solidarity and mutuality define the group’s corporate culture.

In 2023, Slovenian artist Vanja Bućan transforms the Ringturm in Vienna into a larger-than-life artwork called "Wandering icebergs".

An initiative of Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, the Ringturm is transformed this summer into what at first glance looks like an idyllic summertime scene showing bathers on a sandy beach. But the clouds in the background and the sharp silhouettes that jump out from Slovenian artist Vanja Bućan’s design hint at a change on the horizon. They reference the icebergs that give the work its name and are intended to turn the spotlight on climate change and its devastating consequences. The 4,000m2 artistic covering is made up of a total of 30 printed netting sheets, each around 3m wide and up to 63m long.

In 2022, Hungarian artist Dóra Maurer transforms the Ringturm in Vienna into a larger-than-life artwork called With One Another – sending out a powerful message of hope after two years shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Entitled ‘With One Another’, the 4,000 square metre artwork is made up of a total of 30 printed netting sheets, each around 3m wide and up to 63m long. Diagonally intersecting stripes in a spectrum of bright, cheerful colours trace a path across the facade of the buildings on the Ringstrasse boulevard, overlooking the Danube Canal, in Vienna city centre. Created especially for the wrapping of the Ringturm, the artwork’s origins go back to an elaborate system of geometric and chromatic elements devised by Dóra Maurer some 30 years ago, which she has continued to develop in the intervening years.

In 2019, the 4,000 square metre artwork adorning the facade of the Ringturm throughout the summer – comprising a total of 30 printed netting sheets, each around 3m wide and up to 63m long –  is "Future Dreaming" by internationally acclaimed New York-based Bulgarian artist Daniela Kostova.

On the side of the Ringturm facing the Danube Canal, a toddler is looking at us with alert eyes. She is dressed in a space suit. A white dove is landing on her helmet, its wings still spread. The bird, symbolising the dream of flight, features prominently in various emblems of space missions. The toddler’s empirical world is shaped by new encounters: even before she can walk, she is dreaming of the big, wide world. Her toy, a mobile with flying celestial bodies, is depicted on the back side of the building. It indicates a change in perspective: gazing at the Earth from far away, at the fragility of our planet, the environment in which the children of the future will live.

Born in Sofia in 1974, Daniela Kostova's work encompasses a number of different disciplines and focuses on comparing and contrasting different cultural models, looking for the points where they overlap and the hybrid forms this gives rise to.

A special anniversary – 100 years since the establishment of the First Austrian Republic – and an extraordinary artist: Helnwein’s work “I saw this” will transform Vienna’s Ringturm into an imposing reminder of the evils of terror and repression in summer 2018.

In 2018 it is once again the turn of an Austrian artist to design the wrapping of the Ringturm in central Vienna. Born in the Austrian capital and known for his controversial works, Gottfried Helnwein is making an impassioned plea against violence, terror and fear for the Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein initiative.

This summer, the Ringturm was transformed into an eye-catching work of art for the tenth time. Serbian artist Mihael Milunović’s monumental installation brought a mountain massif to the heart of the Austrian capital. “Vision” by Mihael Milunović represented a cultural dialogue between Austria and Serbia. It also underlined the southeast European country’s significance for the Vienna Insurance Group – Wiener Städtische osiguranje a.d.o. Beograd has grown to become one of Serbia’s leading insurers. 

In the summer months of 2016, the Ringturm was transformed into a monumental art installation for the ninth time. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the VIG’s Czech Group company Kooperativa, the Czech painter Ivan Exner designed the netting sheets enveloping the Ringturm. Exner's work, entitled “Unburdened”, shows a boy standing on a hill flying kites. The boy is a symbol of ease and carefreeness. Another important element in the painting is the endless sea horizon lying before the child. Instead of the office building, passers-by will gaze at the open sea in the middle of a densely built-up area of their city. Between the child and the distant horizon lies endless vastness.

On its 60th birthday in 2015, the Ringturm was attracting the attention of the international art scene. For the eighth time, Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, main shareholder of Vienna Insurance Group, wrapped the Ringturm – in 2015 with the work “Sommerfreuden“ (“Summer Pleasures”) by Croatian artist Tanja Deman. During summer, the building once again made its mark on the city’s appearance with a supersized art installation.

Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein is continuing the tradition of covering the Ringturm with large-format works of art with Arnulf Rainer’s “Veil of Agnes” (Schleier der Agnes). Rainer’s work will adorn the facade of the Ringturm this summer from 16 June. The high-visibility art project, set to take place this year for the seventh time, is a declaration of the long-standing connection between Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein and the Klosterneuburg Monastery.

The traditional wrapping of the Ringturm during the summer months highlights the clear and expressive commitment of Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein – the main shareholder of Vienna Insurance Group – to its role as a facilitator of cross-border cultural dialogue. 2013 the young Slovak artist Dorota Sadovská was commissioned to create “Ties”, an art installation which will be used exclusively for covering the façade of the Ringturm. Dorota Sadovská is the second artist from a neighbouring country transforming the office building steeped in tradition into an “Art Tower”.

Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, the main shareholder of the Vienna Insurance Group, is once again demonstrating its commitment to art in public spaces with the fifth artistic decoration of the Ringturm. The tower’s prominent position on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, at the northern end of Franz-Josefs-Kai where the ring opens onto the Danube Canal, offers a perfect opportunity to expose the Viennese public and the city’s many visitors to contemporary art. László Fehér’s work “Society” transforms the Ringturm from an office block into an art tower. This is the first time that an artist from one of Austria’s neighbouring countries has been commissioned to produce an exclusive work for the tower’s transformation.