The Folk Costume Room

The Folk Costume Room, accessible via a glass bridge since the alteration of 2003, is the largest exhibition room in the Folk Life Museum and an expression of Viktor Geramb’s research into the Styrian history of apparel (jointly with Konrad Mautner), as well as his collecting activity and museological approaches.

At present, a tape with names of objects from the museum’s database encircles all the display cases in the Folk Costume Room. These are objects that Geramb brought into the collection. This intervention points out to the visitor that the Folk Costume Room and the contexts around its creation are currently the subject of research.

In November 2022, the new Folk Costume Room has opened, which places the focus on Viktor Geramb as a folklorist, collector and museum director, and honour him – in a critical light. His understanding of the science of folklore, his view ‘of the countryside’ and its inhabitants, his research interests, and practices, too, have shaped the direction taken by the collection and museum over decades.