Symphony in Nylon – all in all lifelong red tights
By Carola Dertnig
Curated by Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein and section.a

More than seventy pairs of tights are suspended from branches in the Maiernigg forest, trailing over the ground: red, pink, and orange drawing lines between the trunks, brushing the forest floor, catching the light, guiding the eye, slowing the pace. All this ends up in a journey through color, touch, and movement.

For artist Carola Dertnig, tights are far more than mere material: they are vestiges, a second skin, spatial lines, carriers of memory. In the slapstick series Strangers, they already appeared as traces left behind in public space—comical, precarious, and revealing all at once. The order of everyday life starts slipping away. In all in all lifelong red tights, tights return as stretchy nylons: elastic, close-fitting, soft yet resistant, detached from the body, and nevertheless shaped by it.

In Maiernigg, this artistic practice spreads out into the forest. Nylon responds sensitively to wind, proximity, and touch. Nylon marks trails, alters courses, and causes the forest to condense into a situation that only fully unfolds as you pass through it. Here, improvisation becomes an artistic co-producer in the interplay between artist, material, environment, and visitors.

A central aspect of this work is the significance of tights in the historical context of wartime prostitution. During the First and Second World Wars, military brothels helped the “sexual relaxation” of soldiers. Historical directives regulated not only the organization of sex work but also hierarchical categories. Officers had access to more exclusive establishments and “higher-ranking” women whose status was marked by high-quality nylons or silk tights. Ordinary soldiers were assigned women who merely wore beige or orange tights made of coarse cotton. Bodies were labeled, evaluated, made available, and fitted into a structure of sexualized and military violence.

Dertnig counters this history of violence with a deliberate shift in terms of material. Breaking with the old color codes, her nylons call for visibility and resistance in red, pink, and orange. The stretchy, vulnerable materiality makes improvisation comprehensible as a “precarious practice”—as a reaction to wind, touch, proximity, and chance. In the forest, tights thus function as a trace of a different order, as they inscribe themselves into space and memory, making resistance physically tangible.

July 11 – October 31, 2026
Carola Dertnig
Symphony in Nylon – all in all lifelong red tights, 2026
Installation, tights, length: 8 to 15 meters, 20den


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Commissioned Composition
powered by Kelag

The heart of our partnership with the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music will continue to beat in 2026: thanks to the generous support of KELAG, we are happy to offer a stage for young talents who want to be heard. This year, we look forward to welcoming Marco Sau, a promising composer from the class of Prof. Dr. Hakan Ulus.

In 2026 the commissioned composition will bring together the three countries of Italy, Austria, and Slovenia in a very special artistic exchange. The Mahler Forum in Klagenfurt will serve as the venue for hosting the world premiere of a new work by Italian composer Marco Sau. The literary text Angel of Improvisation by Slovenian writer Tamara Štajner provides the thematic basis for his piece of music.

The author and violist was awarded the prestigious KELAG Prize at the 2024 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize and, in collaboration with the Year of Literature – Leto literature, Carinthia/Koroška 2026, was invited to write a text that now serves as the point of departure for the new composition.

The world premiere of this cross-border project will take place on July 10, 2026, as part of the Mahler Forum under the baton of Slovenian conductor Alja Klemenc. In 2022 she founded the Alma Mahler Musikverein and the ensemble of the same name (with a lineup of GMPU students and graduates), which is dedicated to experimental approaches and contemporary formats for the performance of classical and contemporary music. The Alma Mahler Musikverein strives to carry on the legacy of this gifted musician by conceiving innovative and educational projects that combine painting, literature, and architecture with music.

In his own words, the composer Marco Sau describes his work as follows:
A ritual has just started.
You are in a new dimension.
You are carried away, surrounded by sounds.
You get lost in it.
Music, Musik, Musica.
What’s composed? What’s improvised?
A brief journey across states of being.
A brief journey across states of mind.
I hope something has changed because a ritual has just finished.


Lineup:
Alja Klemenc (Conductor), Tamara Štajner (Narrator), Sara Lešnik (Soprano), Mihael Strniša (Tenor), Alenka Erzen (Flute), Alexandr Kleshchenko (Clarinet), Petar Hegeduš (Trumpet), David Miljančič (Trombone), Alma Portič (Violin), Zsófia Szöllösi (Viola), Melina Karampali (Cello), Stefan Traninger (Drums), Marco Sau (Live-Electronics).