iWeltmuseum WienInnere Stadt
Ishír: Living Memories from Paraguay
Pop-up show pairing Guido Boggiani's c.1900 photographs and collection with the voices of today's Ishír (Chamacoco) people of Paraguay.
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When the Ishír artist Salmi Lopez Balbuena saw the feather objects in the Weltmuseum's stores, she "didn't know whether to laugh or cry with joy". They had been collected before 1901 by Guido Boggiani, an Italian landscape painter who lived among her ancestors in Paraguay's Gran Chaco, set off there again in October 1901 and never came back.
About 35 of his objects and photographs fill this pop-up on the mezzanine: headdresses of anteater spines and feathers, bags of bromeliad fibre, hunting gear and a mask costume. You look at a headdress made before 1901, then at a 2026 painting by the woman it moved. Around them are the voices of today's Ishír, about 1,500 people whose forest is being cleared for soya, including an 11-year-old who paints so the culture isn't lost.
It's small, so come for that exchange between old objects and new art rather than scale. Entry is the €16 museum ticket, under-19s are free, and Tuesdays run to 9pm.
Look for
The feather headdress
Made before 1901 from anteater spines, feathers and plant fibre, it is the kind of object that moved Salmi Lopez Balbuena to propose the show.
Boggiani's postcard of a headdress being worn
Look for his photograph of an Ishír man wearing a feather headdress, so you can see the objects in the cases as they were used.
Anteater-fur sandals
A pair of sandals made from anteater hide and plant fibres, collected in the Chaco before 1901.
Salmi Lopez Balbuena, The Seven Sisters: The Pleiades
A 2026 acrylic on paper of the star cluster, by the artist whose visit to the stores started the exhibition.
Estela JJuliuz, Tapir
A tapir drawn in ballpoint pen on paper, one of the contemporary Ishír drawings of the animals and nature at the centre of their life.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You want a big show: it's a pop-up of about 35 historic objects and photographs.
With kids
Under-19s get in free. One of the Ishír voices in the show is an 11-year-old girl who paints so her people's culture isn't forgotten.
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iCaution, high voltage! Electrical accidents – a class of their own
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iGood Collecting – Bad Collecting. 150 Years of the Natural History Museum Vienna
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Nearby
Image credits
8
- Ishír: Living Memories from ParaguayKHM-Museumsverband, Weltmuseum Wien
- Glaciers out of balanceJürgen Merz / NHM Wien
- Caution, high voltage! Electrical accidents – a class of their ownNHM Wien
- Good Collecting – Bad Collecting. 150 Years of the Natural History Museum ViennaNHM Wien
- Weltmuseum WienThomas Ledl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Kunsthistorisches Museum WienManfred Werner (Tsui), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Natural History Museum Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien)Stb1er (Dario Premm), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)Mirej / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT