The focus of this year’s Ringturm wrapping is on the celebrations of the Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein’s 200th anniversary. The renowned artist Johanna Kandl is staging the insurance group’s factors of success on 4,000 square meters.
The Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein’s cultural flagship project has a special significance this year: December 24, 2024 marks the bicentenary of its founding. To highlight this milestone anniversary, the Versicherungsverein and the insurance group’s companies reflect upon their historical roots and the values that have guaranteed their many years of success: courage, solidarity, and mutuality define the group’s corporate culture. “Inviting all of the city’s inhabitants and visitors to join us, we wish to celebrate this special birthday with an extraordinary Ringturm wrapping. The work created by Johanna Kandl symbolizes impressively that our group’s success story is based on more than just financial ratios, namely on stable values that have formed our basis for 200 years,” says Robert Lasshofer, chairman of the managing board of the Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, main shareholder of Vienna Insurance Group (VIG).
Leitmotifs and Values
For her painting “With the Best Ingredients” renowned Austrian artist Johanna Kandl has drawn her inspiration from everyday life. The work, commissioned to mark our company’s anniversary, shows a collection of colorful storage containers—food storage jars and boxes—on a total area of 4,000 square meters. In various typographic fonts and occasionally also in handwriting, expressions can be found on them that point to essential immaterial contents. Reflecting the insurance group’s guiding principles, they convey encouragement and are of a reassuring character: qualities that are indispensable both professionally and privately. “The inspiration for my ‘motivating image’ came from the song ‘Keine Angst’ (1982), which is German and means something like ‘Don’t Be Afraid,’ by Austrian pop legend Hansi Lang. His music was formative for our generation in Vienna. Lang’s sound continues to have a powerful and cheerful impact—and what could be more fitting for an insurance group celebrating its 200th anniversary this year? In addition, my picture speaks in the languages of the market in which the company operates, including some that are also frequently spoken in Vienna but which can rarely be seen in writing—such as Hungarian, Slovakian, Polish or Turkish,” Johanna Kandl says about her work.
The giant canvas was officially unveiled on Tuesday 10 September in a ceremony attended by prominent society figures as well as guests from the worlds of politics and business. Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig officially unveiled the 2024 Ringturm wrapping.
“Every year, the artistic covering of the Ringturm shines a new light on our city’s creative energy and cultural diversity. Johanna Kandl’s eye-catching work “With the Best Ingredients” continues this tradition, and at the same time sends a strong message in favour of social cohesion and cross-cultural dialogue. This enables Vienna – as a hotbed of art and culture – not only to show off its cosmopolitan side, but also to underline the importance of art and culture in public spaces,” commented Mayor Michael Ludwig.
“’Courage’, ‘solidarity’ and ‘together’: for her artistic covering of the Ringturm, Johanna Kandl has immortalised these words – values which have been crucial and have formed the basis of the Group’s business model from its very beginnings – in 13 languages. This year’s wrapping is an expression of our close ties with Vienna, as well as the countries of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, and marks the 200th anniversary of the company’s establishment, which falls on 24 December,” Robert Lasshofer, Chair of the Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein Managing Board, emphasised.”
“Expressed in various languages, my design features concepts that people can take heart from – just like the song Keine Angst [Don’t Worry] by Austropop legend Hansi Lang. These concepts are presented as wording on different containers, like those we find in the kitchen. SOLIDARITY adds flavour, as symbolised by the mustard tube, while EGYÜTT and ZAJEDNO aren’t actual products, but rather the Hungarian and Croatian words for TOGETHER. Do courage, solidarity and togetherness come neatly packaged as a product? But perhaps the most important element of this heartening image is that it raises the profile of many of the languages that can often be heard in Vienna, but are rarely seen in writing,” Johanna Kandl explained.
