Secession Podcast: Members is a series of conversations featuring members of the Secession. This episode is a conversation between the member Carl Pruscha and the art historian and curator Bettina M. Busse. It was recorded on April 5, 2023.

Carl Pruscha (b. 1936 in Innsbruck) studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Lois Welzenbacher and Roland Rainer and urban planning at Harvard University with José Luis Sert. In 1976 Pruscha became university professor and head of his institute at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. From 1988 to 2002, he was the rector of the academy. An important project from this period was the reconstruction of the so-called Semper Depot. From 2001 to 2005, Pruscha transitioned to the position of professor in Design and Habitat, Environment & Conservation. At the invitation of the Getty Institute in Los Angeles, he wrote critical analyses of architectural developments in countries of the Global South. From 2005, he realised the new school building for the organisation "One World Foundation" in Sri Lanka. Carl Pruscha was Chairman of the Advisory Board for Art and Building in the Ministry of Science, Art and Research, is a sought-after jury member in art and architecture competitions, and has been awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art and the Gold Decoration for Services to the City of Vienna, among others.

Bettina M. Busse is an art historian and curator at Kunstforum Wien. Before that, she worked for many years as a curator at MAK Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, Vienna. She has curated numerous exhibitions on Contemporary and Modern Art, including Joseph Beuys, Anish Kapoor, Jannis Kounellis, Jenny Holzer. The Cindy Sherman Effect. Identity and Transformation in Contemporary Art, Kunstforum Wien, 2020, Rebecca Horn, 2021 and David Hockney Insights, Kunstforum Wien, 2022. In 2003, together with Kasper König, she was responsible for the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (Bruno Gironcoli). Co-founder and director of the Bruno Gironcoli Estate. She is currently working on the most comprehensive retrospective of Marina Abramovic's work to date, which will be shown at Kunstforum Wien in 2025. Bettina M. Busse is author and editor of numerous texts and publications.

The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.

Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. Eberhard

Editing Director: Christian Lübbert
Editor: Paul Macheck

Programmed by the board of the Secession
Produced by Christian Lübbert