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raising flags
Reimagining public space through art, dialogue, and shared symbols
Untitled (I want nothing) by Christian Robert-Tissot, 2023.
The collaboration between with the museum in progress unfolds through raising flags, a long-term artistic initiative that reinterprets the flag as a medium of communication. Historically used to signal identity, territory, and power, the flag here becomes a site for reflection, carrying messages, questions, and collective imagination into contemporary public space.
museum in progress approaches art as a catalyst for dialogue within everyday life. Working beyond institutional frameworks, the initiative places artworks directly within public contexts, where they are encountered not as objects of display, but as part of lived experience.
This approach considers both aesthetic intent and social responsibility, balancing artistic freedom with sensitivity to cultural context and community engagement, an alignment that resonates closely with sā Ladakh’s values.
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At sā Ladakh Biennale 2024
'raising flags' is a long-term initiative curated by Alois Herrmann and Kaspar Mühlemann Hartl, inviting artists to rethink the symbolic and political language of flags through contemporary practice. Since 2023, artists have contributed works across physical and digital platforms, transforming flags into carriers of ideas, movements, and diverse cultural narratives.
At sā Ladakh Biennale 2024, works by Minerva Cuevas, Christian Eisenberger, Shilpa Gupta, Samson Kambalu, Agnieszka Kurant, Christian Robert-Tissot, Eva Schlegel, Grazia Toderi, and Erwin Wurm were presented, expanding the dialogue across geographies and contexts.
GREEN DOG EARED CRYPTO NATION
by Samson Kambalu, 2023
Life by Erwin Wurm, 2023
Ongoing Collaborations
Continuing into sā Ladakh Biennale 2026, the initiative evolves with contributions from Anna Jermolaewa, Agnieszka Kurant, Grazia Toderi, Jitish Kallat, and Peter Kogler. The collaboration also supports Ladakhi artist Karma Sonam Tashi, in association with Quiet Art Movement, to develop a new flag rooted in local context.
Through this ongoing exchange, museum in progress explore how art can function as a shared language—embedding meaning within public space and fostering dialogue across communities, cultures, and time.
About museum in progress
museum in progress was founded in Vienna in 1990 and has collaborated with more than 700 artists to date. Its exhibition activities focus on contemporary art in media, public, and virtual spaces – for example in newspapers and magazines, on billboards and building facades, on flagpoles, on television, in concert halls, or online. As an immaterial museum, museum in progress realises context-dependent and temporary art projects at the intersection of art and everyday life. In this way, the initiative reaches a wide audience while promoting diversity and freedom in contemporary art production and fostering public discourse.
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A long-term collaboration of sā Ladakh Biennale with the museum in progress