Carola Dertnig: Equivok – An Exhibition Exploring Language, Gender Politics, and Performance Art

Carola Dertnig's exhibition 'Equivok' features drawings, video works, and installations exploring the performative content of language, text, and gestures. The exhibition focuses on feminist perspectives and the politicization of gender, presenting a new work that synthesizes her recent interests.

The exhibition 'Equivok' by Carola Dertnig delves into the performative aspects of language, text, images, and gestures, documenting processes of role formation and articulation. Central to her work are feminist perspectives and a deliberate politicization of gender. For her exhibition at the Secession, Dertnig presents a new work that synthesizes various fields of interest from recent years, combining a sound installation, drawings, and an architectural intervention. The sound installation features a monologue derived from interviews related to the 1968 'Uniskandal' action in Vienna, where Dertnig partially rewrites, omits, or adds to the original text to create a narrative that is fictionalized within a documentary framework. This approach questions who has been excluded from historical accounts and the roles women played. Dertnig deliberately avoids gendered pronouns, referencing theories by Beatriz Preciado on socially constructed texts and the critique of heteronormative concepts in art, such as the Viennese Aktionismus. The drawings in the exhibition employ similar tactics, mixing historical material and art historical citations (like the Viennese Aktionismus and stage designs by Friedrich Kiesler) with feminist and utopian content. These works depict scenes reminiscent of utopian film architecture, inhabited by subjects not normatively assignable by gender. Dertnig further extends the performative aspect of her drawings into the exhibition space itself by incorporating a second floor, transforming the gallery into a stage. This invites the audience to shift roles from passive viewers to participants, making the exhibition space a site for action and reflection on utopian possibilities and alternative social and sexual concepts.

Information regarding tickets can be found via the provided link to the Secession's shop. General information about visiting the Secession, including opening hours, is available on their website, indicating that exhibition access is likely tied to general admission or specific event ticketing details found elsewhere on the site. Visitors are directed to 'Information & Tickets' for further details.