In Vienna, across the city’s walls, the Swiss duo NEVERCREW once again reflects on the relationship between human beings and the environment with Souvenir, the new mural created for Klima Biennale Wien 2026, promoted by KunstHausWien and curated by Calle Libre as part of the (No) Funny Games program.
As often happens in NEVERCREW’s practice, Souvenir presents itself with an immediately accessible aesthetic, almost light and childlike, yet one built to trigger a deeper reflection on the environmental and social implications of the climate crisis. The image recalls a playful dimension before revealing its inner tension: nature appears filtered, transformed, almost simulated. No longer experienced through a direct relationship, but observed as something distant, arranged, and controlled.
It is precisely within this gap that the work finds its strength. The bond between human beings and ecosystems weakens, making room for a utilitarian vision in which the environment becomes backdrop, object, surface. A landscape that feels familiar and yet, at the same time, appears artificial, suspended between reality and construction.
In Souvenir, a playful dimension also emerges, though stripped of its innocence. Play becomes simplification, a reduction of complexity into a superficial image, reflecting the ease with which profound and irreversible processes are approached. Elements such as plastic reinforce this condition, highlighting the direct link between human production and the transformation of ecosystems, between everyday gestures and global consequences.
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The title itself suggests a fragment of memory, something to take away, but also a remnant of what is at risk of disappearing. Souvenir thus becomes a point of intersection between perception, responsibility, and awareness. Observation turns into consciousness, while the viewer is invited to recognize their own role within a fragile and interconnected balance, where every intervention leaves a trace and every distance becomes, inevitably, illusory.
