ARTISTS

Hauptraum is the German word for “main space,” and at the Vienna Secession it refers to the building’s large ground-floor gallery. The Hauptraum became both a subject and stage for a video piece Yuki Okumura made for his solo exhibition at Secession in early 2025. Wilhelm as Hauptraum focuses on Wilhelm “Willi” Montibeller, a core member of the museum’s installation team for over two decades. Standing before a scale model of the gallery, Montibeller recalls past exhibitions he helped install, recounting them from memory alone. At Okumura’s instruction, he occasionally voices lines such as “My name is Hauptraum” or “I am a space,” lending the gallery a kind of self-awareness. The camera lingers on his hands throughout, as they sketch, trace, and point through the air, drawing the outlines of artworks that formerly occupied the space.