Tautropfen / Gotas de Rocío: Sonic Dialogues for VIENNA ART WEEK
An art project by Juliana Herrero

Tautropfen is a site-specific installation and performative sound space at Brigittaplatz (20th district). Starting in November 2025, the pavilion will be transformed into a living laboratory where sculpture, sound, ecological reflection, and sur(real)ization intertwine. Sur(real)ization characterizes the work, in which reality and fantasy merge.

The installation works with recycled materials and low-tech motion-sensitive sound compositions. This creates a responsive system that is activated especially in the dark. Visitors enter into a physically experiential dialogue with their surroundings, which makes learning tangible as a reciprocal process—inspired by theorists such as Karen Barad and Bruno Latour.

Interwoven with ecological memories—from Amazonian rituals to the Andes to the Amancay flower of Patagonia—and carried by sound textures and symbolic materials, Tautropfen affirms non-institutional forms of knowledge based on care, mindfulness, and connectedness. It is about “feeling your feet on the ground” and rethinking the future ecologically.

During VIENNA ART WEEK, the installation will be activated by Sonic Dialogues: Juliana Herrero and art historian Maria Christine Holter will enter the cube together – the start of a multi-layered sound conversation and, at the same time, the opening of the work. After a brief exchange about nature and artistic processes, the a cappella performance begins with a micro-fragment from Patagonian cultural heritage (1983, Esquel, Chubut, Radio Patagón), revived by Tehuelche-Mapuche singer Aimé Painé, embedded in the process of Sur(real)isation.

Voice, body, sounds, and everyday objects interweave to create rhythmic soundscapes between improvisation and embodied research. The audience is invited to become part of the open process—instruments and objects are welcome. Together with Artists For Future Austria, the outdoor space around the pavilion will also be expanded in a performative and participatory way.

The glass box was built long before the construction of the U6 subway line, in connection with the construction of the residential complex in the 1960s. Over the years, the glass pavilion has been used for a variety of purposes—by various institutions in the 20th district, by schools, and other organizations—and finally, the Brigittenau District Museum took over the pavilion as a branch for art events by young artists. As part of the art project Tautropfen / Gotas de Rocío, the glass box is now being renamed the Glass Pavilion and given a new lease of life: as a resonance space for collective learning, ecological connectedness, and cultural transformation—a place of shared spirit and shared vibration.

Tautropfen / Gotas de Rocío proposes a hybrid model of poetic knowledge: at the intersection of sound, movement, ecology, and public presence. The focus is on how we learn: through connection, improvisation, sur(real)ization, and our shared existence on Earth.

Cooperation partner: Artists For Future Austria