At the exhibition space on Vienna’s Exhibit Eschenbachgasse, the artists take the audience on a tour of a collection of invisible artworks that begin to slowly take shape in listeners’ minds. Between fact and fiction, they propose visitors embody a sculpture, tune into a song or follow their own thoughts. Based on their research, Sööt/Zeyringer draw attention to notorious cases such as the controversy surrounding Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven’s Fountain (misattributed to Marcel Duchamp for a long time) or Camille Claudel’s figurative sculptures (that were overshadowed by the work of her partner Auguste Rodin). Also featuring: Yoko Ono’s works (often eclipsed by John Lennon) and the groundbreaking abstract art of Hilma af Klint.

Amidst past and present stories about stolen or misinterpreted authorship, the two artists also relate personal experiences and ask how much stealing of ideas is okay. The Invisible Collection invites its visitors to think about the history of art and how individual stories and societal narratives tend to get intertwined. With their usual wit, warmth and acuiy eye for injustice, Sööt/Zeyringer encourage listeners to find out, step by step, how we ourselves want to shape history.

Tiina Sööt and Dorothea Zeyringer presented their first performance together in 2012, when they were both studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Since then, they have as the duo Sööt/Zeyringer devised performance pieces for exhibition spaces, stages and the public realm. At the intersection of visual art, choreography and theatre, their performances poetically and humorously tackle personally and socially relevant themes. For their most recent pieces, they did research on mothers that deviate from the norm of motherhood, analysed female rage and documented forgotten heroines of slapstick.

Sööt/Zeyringer’s work has been shown at, among other places, brut Wien, mumok, Kunsthalle Wien, Tanzquartier Wien, the Wiener Festwochen, Sophiensæle Berlin and Schwankhalle Bremen. Sööt/Zeyringer received the ImPulsTanz TURBO Research Residency and the Performing Arts Award issued by what was then the Austrian Federal Chancellor’s Office. In 2019, they were part of the FREISCHWIMMEN producing platform; in 2024, they received the ‘Förderungspreis’ Fine Arts of the City of Vienna. www.sootzeyringer.com