MENTAL LOAD – Invisible Labor
group show
Palazzo Mora
Venice Biennale
European Cultural Centr
Italy
9.5.–22.11.2026
Trinkhalle, Sudhaus & Galerie am Fluss
Bad Ischl
Austria
6.6 –16.6.2026
Mental load and invisible labor shape everyday life in ways that often remain unseen, yet deeply felt. Between care work, emotional responsibility, and the constant need to organize, anticipate, and hold things together, an invisible pressure accumulates quietly. In a fast-paced world of rising costs and growing inequality, exhaustion, grief, and the feeling of being stretched too thin become part of daily reality.
Veronika Merklein’s The Silent Neighbor (Die stille Nachbarin) reflects on what remains hidden in the private sphere. Staged in the artist’s former apartment and only visible from outside, it shows a woman seemingly suspended from a smiley-shaped balloon, exposing tensions between facade and inner reality.
Curated by Zentrum Didaktik für Kunst und interdisziplinären Unterricht, University of Applied Arts Vienna
