07.08. | Meet-Up Night: When Art Meets Hilarious Reality

Picture this: a rainy, grey Tuesday in Vienna. Instead of drinking hot chocolate in a cosy café, we threw ourselves into the mysterious halls of the MAK Museum of Applied Arts.

Yes, a museum.

Even I found the idea slightly unusual at first, but in the name of team building and actually getting to know one another, we are apparently capable of anything—including cultural shock.

Once the admission wristbands were attached, we went straight in at the deep end.

First assignment: team building with an artistic twist.

I divided everyone into pairs and gave each pair a word. Their job was to embody that word in a photograph.

Imagine the fun when somebody received “chaos” and then tried to express it in front of a perfectly ordered display case.

The museum provided a thousand and one sources of inspiration—or at least a thousand and one objects that could be confidently described as “that's it!”

Within twenty minutes everyone had found a spiritual soulmate in a sculpture, painting or mysterious museum object.

Comfort zone successfully stretched.

Action! Camera! Museum!

Of course, we didn't stop there.

Next level: teams of three, using the already battle-tested producer/model/photographer structure we had practised near St Stephen's Cathedral.

This is where the real drama began.

For quite a few people, surrendering control to someone else's direction was a genuine challenge. I imagined a model standing completely still while the producer says: “Now be an 18th-century piece of furniture that has just realised it has lost a leg.”

The person directing also had to learn to recognise the “exit point”: the instant when the photograph is complete—preferably before the model collapses sobbing on the museum floor under the weight of excessive creativity.

Storytelling Among Objects

If that wasn't enough, we created teams of four using people whose artistic paths had not yet crossed that day.

We conquered another wing of the museum. Two people talked or acted, one directed, one photographed, and then everyone rotated.

The point: tell a story in scenes.

Now imagination really escaped.

At the same time, everyone was admiring the remarkable exhibition architecture and finding ways to incorporate it creatively into the photographs.

Peace After Chaos—or the Party Afterwards

At the end of the day we held a debrief, where everyone shared their sometimes fairly unhinged experiences.

Then came free time.

That was when the diversity of the group became beautifully obvious. Some went straight to the museum bar for a well-earned drink—whether they consumed it artistically remains undocumented.

Others stayed absorbed in the exhibitions until closing time, as if the museum were their second home.

Some headed directly to a music club and formed a musical community project.

And a few stood in front of my camera for spontaneous portraits in the rain.

I don't think the rain is visible in the pictures at all.

I can safely say I've never had a museum adventure quite like this.

And get ready: next Tuesday we're heading to another one—IKONO Vienna.

Who knows? Perhaps a stone dinosaur will give us the next creative assignment. Or perhaps we'll simply sit down in the café and tell stories while the dust of history settles on our digital gadgets.

One thing is certain: there will be no shortage of visual experiences.

Here is a selection of what the team created.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.