Carola Dertnig produced her video Revolving Door in the summer of 2001 when, as part of an artist in residence program, she had a studio on the 91st floor of Tower I of the World Trade Center in New York. In this work, as in the performances in her True Stories series (1997–2003), Dertnig employs the slapstick genre. The True Stories are based on the performativity of everyday
actions and on authentic episodes that are experienced as embarrassing mishaps. In Revolving Door, Dertnig, laden down with materials, attempts to get through a revolving door of the World Trade Center with a trolley. Her real experience—of getting stuck in the entrance in the hectic crush of passersby —became part of the project, as did her confrontation with the safety deficits of the WTC. In the summer of 2001, Dertnig already portrayed the WTC as a safety hazard; as part of the project she studied the bomb attack of 1993, the report on which revealed that the WTC did not have sufficient entrances and exits.

Carola Dertnig
* 1963 Innsbruck, Austria
lives and works in Vienna and New York

Exhibitions (Selection)

2006 Carola Dertnig, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, A

2006 Österreichische Kunst – Konfrontation und Kontinuität, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, A

2005 Carola Dertnig, Galerie Andreas Huber, Wien, A

2005 Wild Walls New York: A Series of Films in/on Architecture, Artists Space, New York, USA

2005 After the Act. Die (Re)Präsentation der Performancekunst, MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, A

2005 Living and Working in Vienna, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, USA

2005 Lebt und Arbeitet in Wien II, Kunsthalle Wien, Wien, A

2004 Carola Dertnig, Secession, Wien, A

2004 From Above, Galerie Georg Kargl, Wien, A

2003 Handlungsräume 6: Strangers, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, A

selected bibliography:

Carola Dertnig, texts by Pip Day, Carrie Lambert, T19 Galerie, Vienna, 1999 (cat.)

Carola Dertnig, ... but buildings can’t talk ..., texts by Rike Frank and die weisse blatt, Triton Verlag, Vienna, 2002

Carola Dertnig, Equivok, texts by Matthias Herrmann and Patricia Grzonka, Secession, Vienna, 2004

Clausen, Barbara, Vintagemedien, in: Texte zur Kunst, Dezember 2004, pp. 207f.

Let’s twist again, Carola Dertnig, Stefanie Seibold (ed.), D.E.A. Consulting und Verlag, Gumpoldskirchen, 2005 (cat.)