‍Earlier this year I began a site-specific sound residency at Bildraum 01 in the 1st district of Vienna. Set amidst a row of jewellery stores, high end clothing stores, and secondary market print shops, the small storefront gallery sits patiently on Strauchgasse watching as things change. From 1971-74 Vanilla was here. There are no markings, and little of the experimental attitude from the artist-run space is left on site, save for a book published in the late 1990s by its owner Christiane Dertnig. In February, I started collecting and working on sound there. In July, I had an exhibition there. In August, my 9-year-old threw a dance party there. In September, a new show opened there; clearing out any visible or audible traces from the short history we just constructed.

Vanilla is narrated as being inclusive, experimental, austere, glamorous, multi-generational, wild, and safe all at the same time. The images left behind are fantastic. There’s not many pictures of its interior though, mostly they’re focused on the people, its community, and the realities they produced. The soundtrack for Vanilla Was Here is asynchronous, over three hours long, and behaves very differently depending on the view.

-
Events
01 * Prompt Performance – Vanilla Interiors / Carola Dertnig & Seth Weiner / July 12  
02 * Artist Talk – Sway ng alaala / Celeste Montales / July 18
03 * Listening Session – ‘Readings’ Album Release / Morning Seance / July 25
04 * Listening Session – The Boom Within - Unreleased / Lenson Piquet /August 24
05 * Vanilla Does the Boogie (Kinder Dance Party) / DJ Caesar Salad (Manès Weiner-Slanar) / August 25