Mediation: School Programme, Public Programme, Activations

The climate crisis is a public concern. While it affects everyone, the responsibility to respond is distributed unequally. Political and economic framework conditions determine who is heard, who can act, and who remains excluded from the discourse.

Against this background, Concerning the Public, the mediation programme of the Klima Biennale Wien 2026, aims to extend and renegotiate the concept of the public domain. The starting point is art in public space, which has always been confronted with the dual question of whom it is addressing and which form of public is it responding to—or indeed even creating in the first place. Public space is not merely a setting but itself a central actor: a location fostering interpersonal exchange, a surface for representation, and a space of social integration.

Through collective observation, discussion, and experience in public space, Concerning the Public creates situations where a public domain is not assumed but first arises in a joint process. Mediation is understood as a process, one in which knowledge is not only imparted but integrative participation is also made possible and new forms of public speaking and action are tried out.