Precious Junk – Collected (Hi-)Stories

60 years of collecting and preserving – thousands of objects lie in the storage depots of the Austrian Open-Air Museum, mostly pieces that while not precious in material terms, are nonetheless valuable evidence in an immaterial sense of the world of work and everyday life of the rural population in times gone by.

To collect means to remember – a period that has passed. Once simple everyday objects that are now museum objects tell us with all their traces of usage stories, yet also the history of the life, work, social values, crafting skills, living circumstances, technical developments and so on of earlier generations. In the exhibition, these common, unremarkable objects, most of them no longer applicable to modern times, are shifted to the centre, making them precious museum exhibits that have become rare.