Poiesis and LEFÖ join forces at Wien Museum for the Vienna Latina exhibition

On April 30, 2026, the Poiesis project stepped outside its usual pilot-workshop settings and into one of Vienna's major cultural institutions. IRARU, the Austrian coordinator of Poiesis, was invited together with LEFÖ — a Viennese association supporting migrant women — to take part in the exhibition of the Vienna Latina consortium at the Wien Museum, alongside several other Latin American organisations.

A collaboration months in the making

The invitation was the result of a collaboration that had been running for three months before the event. IRARU and LEFÖ jointly ran four workshops on the theme of migration. Using the Expressive Arts approach at the heart of Poiesis, the sessions gave participants a way to explore and process memories, fears and emotions tied to migration — experiences that are often hard to put into words.

Out of these workshops came a piece of collective artwork: "el abrigo" ("the coat"). At the Wien Museum exhibition, the coat was displayed again, this time as a starting point for new creative interpretations, opening up a fresh space for collective reflection on migration among visitors.

Part of a larger citywide project

The exhibition itself, "Viena Latina – Living between worlds," ran at the Wien Museum's Community Gallery (Karlsplatz) from March 5 to May 31, 2026. It is the outcome of a broader EU-funded initiative (CERV programme) developed with the Austrian Latin America Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, gathering the stories of roughly 20,000 people from around 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries living in Vienna, through interviews, photographs, textile work and guided city walks.

Within that larger framework, the April 30 event gave IRARU and LEFÖ the chance to make their joint process visible to the public, contribute to the exhibition's archive, and leave behind an object that will remain within Vienna's Latin American community as a lasting reminder of LEFÖ's history and work.

The Wien Museum collaboration is a clear example of Poiesis' core idea in action: expressive arts as a tool for well-being, inclusion and community building — in this case bringing that approach directly to migrant women in Vienna, and connecting the project's work with the wider cultural life of the city rather than keeping it confined to closed workshop settings.