Carola Dertnig: FINALLY it’s HAPPENING

KinderKunstLabor for Contemporary Art presents FINALLY It’s HAPPENING, the first exhibition in Austria to bring together the performative practices of internationally renowned artist Carola Dertnig—from action painting and happenings to performance. Adapted to the hexagonal exhibition space, Dertnig’s new installation choreographs sound, movement and functional sequences into an experience involving the entire body. 

FINALLY It’s HAPPENING draws on Dertnig’s Fly by Production, first presented at MoMA PS1 in summer 2000. More than two decades later, this experimental and poetic approach remains strikingly relevant. At KinderKunstLabor, two swings are installed in front of the gallery walls, accompanied by a dance floor. A miniature golf course extends across the exhibition, turning the entire floor into a field of play. Walls and architectural elements glow in yellow, violet, blue and orange—a spectrum derived from Dertnig’s drawings.

Swinging creates a dynamic interplay between acceleration and gravity. Air moves across skin, clothes and hair. Vision, touch, orientation and balance shift in rapid succession. This physical experience is combined with an action that might initially seem like its opposite: painting. Visitors can apply colour to their shoes, soles or textiles. At the highest point of each swing, their feet touch canvases mounted on the walls, leaving behind imprints. Movement becomes notation, individual gestures accumulate into a visible record of the performance. Fingerprints can also be added to part of the wall opposite the entrance.

The installation playfully references Viennese Actionism and action painting. Dertnig examines the historically male-coded gestures of these movements from a feminist perspective, transforming their charged aura—often associated with shock, transgression and bodily violence—into an experience of conviviality: a shared, welcoming experience. Here, swinging becomes an invitation to experience performative processes through collective, joyful action—across generations.

Curated by Mona Jas. Spatial concept by Seth Weiner and studio-itzo.