KÖR Vienna was founded in 2004 on the joint initiative of the City of Vienna's three administrative units Culture, City Planning and Housing. Since 2024, Stadt Wien Kunst GmbH has acted as the supporting organisation and organisational umbrella for the institution. A jury that changes every three years – consisting of artists, curators and architects – evaluates submitted projects and nominates artists for competitions.

KÖR Vienna is committed to breathing new life into the city of Vienna’s public space with permanent or temporary art projects. Its endeavors are aimed at strengthening the identity of the city and of individual neighborhoods in terms of contemporaneity and at reviving public space as an agora – a place of sociopolitical and cultural discussion. KÖR Vienna does not understand art in public space as décor, but as an offer for the confrontation with aesthetical contents and radical solutions and a symbolic marking of hitherto culturally abstemious territories.

As an art institution operating in the public space, we select thematic focuses, initiate and produce art projects or support submitted project ideas. We design outreach programs, hold competitions and cooperate with institutions and project sponsors. Our fields of activity include temporary individual projects as well as permanent art and construction projects for residential buildings, subway stations and train stations or square designs as well as projects regarding remembrance culture.