Skirball Cultural Center

Café Vienne was a site-specific exhibition developed for the Skirball by Austrian artist Isa Rosenberger (b. 1969). Within this immersive installation, which paid tribute to the important cultural role of Viennese coffee houses, Rosenberger honored little-known Jewish writer Gina Kaus (1893–1985).

In the early twentieth century, female artists and writers in particular embraced the coffee house as a place for debate, networking, and inspiration in their quest for political and artistic recognition. Rosenberger used this setting to focus on Kaus, once a well-known literary figure in Vienna. The bestselling novelist and devout free-thinker was driven from Europe by the Nazi regime, eventually emigrating to the United States, where she became a Hollywood screenwriter. Rosenberger introduced Kaus’s legacy through newly created video work and a photographic series that inspired the patrons of Zeidler’s Café to engage in stimulating discussion over coffee and Viennese pastries.
 
Isa Rosenberger (b. 1969) has received the Outstanding Artist Award in Austria. She has participated internationally in exhibitions and received a MAK Schindler grant in 1997. Café Vienne was her first project in Los Angeles.