Elke Krasny

Elke Krasny (born 1965 in Vienna, Austria) is a cultural and architectural theorist, urban researcher, curator, and author. Her work specializes in architecture, contemporary art, urbanism, feminist museology, histories and theories of curating, critical historiographies of feminism, politics of remembrance, and their intersections. Krasny received her Ph.D. from the University of Reading. She is Professor of Art and Education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She worked as a visiting professor at the University of Bremen and the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg. In 2012 she was visiting scholar at the Canadian Centre for Architecture CCA, Montréal. In 2014, she was City of Vienna Visiting Professor at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space (SKuOR) at the Vienna University of Technology. Using the framework of political care ethic developed by Joan Tronto, Krasny works on developing a perspective of critical care for architectural and urban practice and theory. In 2019, together with Angelika Fitz she edited Critical Care. Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet.

Curating
Krasny's research-based curatorial work ''The Force is in the Mind. The Making of Architecture'' was shown at the Architecture Centre Vienna in 2008. Her field research on Canadian architectural practices was presented in the exhibition ''Penser tout haut. Faire l’Architecture at the Centre de Design of UQAM in Montréal in 2010 and subsequently The Making of Architecture'' was shown at the Dalhousie University School of Architecture in Halifax in 2011. In 2011-2012 she was Visiting Artist at the Audain Gallery Vancouver and together with the Downtown Eastside Women's Center DEWC worked on the process-oriented exhibition ''Mapping the Everyday. Neighbourhood Claims for the Future''. Krasny curated the research-based exhibition Hands-On Urbanism in 2012 which originated at the Architecture Centre Vienna and was shown internationally, including venues like the Museum for Contemporary Art Leipzig the 2012 Venice Biennale, the Architecture Gallery Dessa in Ljubljana, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the Urban Space Gallery Toronto, by d.talks in Calgary, and at the Kibel Gallery, School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation University of Maryland.

Krasny's exhibition Suzanne Lacy’s International Dinner Party in Feminist Curatorial Thought was shown at ZHdK Zurich University of the Arts in Switzerland in 2015 and subsequently at the 13th International Architecture Humanities Research Association Conference, Architecture, Ecologies, Economies, Technologies & Feminisms at KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden in 2016 Krasny together with Angelika Fitz curated the research project and exhibition Care+Repair in the context of the 2017 Vienna Biennale.

Lectures and symposia
In 2010, Elke Krasny organized the international symposium ''Women: Museum. From Collection Strategy to Social Platform'' at the Vienna Library at City Hall.

Krasny initiated and curated the 2012 international conference ''Women’s Movements: Feminist Agency. Intersections of Activism, Archiving, Art, Art History, Critical Research, Curating, Education, Feminisms and Politics of Remembrance'' at rotor association for contemporary art in Graz.

She gave a lecture at the 2014 Conference Cooperative Cities in the frame of the Urban Colloquium Lecture Series at the Parsons School of Design in NYC.

In 2015, she initiated and co-curated the symposium Counter/Acting Self-Organized Universities, held jointly at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Kunsthalle Wien.

The lecture on Hands-On Urbanism at Medialab-Prado Madrid was part of the 2015 public seminar Affective Urbanism organized by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space (Vienna University of Technology), VIC Vivero de Iniciativas Ciudadanas and Intermediae-Matadero.

The symposium Curating in Feminist Thought, organized together with Lara Perry and Dorothee Richter, was held at Migros Museum Zurich in 2016.

In 2017, Krasny together with Lara Perry, Dorothee Richter, and Barbara Mahlknecht organized the symposium Unsettling Feminist Curating at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

In 2021 Krasny delivered the lecture Realities of Care: On Interdependence in Architecture as part of the Sciame Lecture Series Architectures of Care organized by the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York. She also gave a keynote lecture on Architecture for Future. Caring for a Broken Planet on the occasion of the Opening Architecture Festival at the Aarhus School of Architecture.