Iris Dittler’s work investigates bodily perception and embodied knowledge across drawing, installation, and performance.
Focusing on body space, felt configurations of tension, and tactile–kinaesthetic experiences, she considers what exists in latency as an internal physical and psychological architecture. Her drawings act as seismographic notations of these internal processes.
Her installations are choreographed situations: objects are arranged in space and activated through live performance, serving as tools to explore and reconfigure the body’s internal space. Process-driven and shaped by the spaces they occupy, her projects unfold between galleries and theatre, inviting the audience to attend to their own physical presence.
EDUCATION
2011
Master of Fine Arts
2004–2011
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Graphic and Printmaking with Gunter Damisch and Otto Zitko
Performance Studies with Kaucyila Brooke
2008–2009
École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (ENSBA), Paris
Sculpture with Anne Rochette
SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS
2025
39th Austrian Graphic Competition - Prize of the Province of South Tyrol
2023
Theodor Kery Prize for Performing Arts, Kery Foundation, Burgenland
2022
Arbeitsstipendium für Bildende Kunst MA7, one-year scholarship for fine arts, City of Vienna
2018
Theodor Körner Prize
2017
NXT / Going International, program of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and
the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA)
Artist Studio Grant, Paliano, Italy
2016
Staatsstipendium / Federal Grant for Fine Arts, Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria
Förderungspreis der Stadt Wien / City of Vienna Grant for Fine Art, City of Vienna
2015
Emerging Choreographer 2015/16, D.ID Dance Identity, Austria
2014
Cité des Arts, Paris
Scholarship from the Arts and Culture Division of the Austrian Federal Chancellery
2013
Jeune Création Selection 2013, Paris
Werkstück 2013, Emerging Choreographers, Tanzquartier Vienna
2012
BMUKK – Startstipendium für bildende Kunst, Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture, Scholarship for emerging artists in visual art
2008
Scholarship for the coaching project “Transforming Image into Movement” by Hooman Sharifi, ImPulsTanz 2008, Vienna
EXHIBITIONS
2026
Hollow: Iris Dittler, Ulrike Mohr, Céline Struger, Hamid Yaraghchi, Peter Gaugy, Brussels
At least 4 hugs a day, At least 30 sec each, duo show with Maja Spasova, The Mission Gallery / State Institute for Culture, Sofia
2025
Lichtungen – The Awarded Works of the 39th Austrian Graphic Competition, Museum im Zeughaus, Innsbruck
Das Unhaltbare / L’Incontenable (The Uncontainable), Iris Dittler & Lisa Großkopf, Peter Gaugy, Vienna
2024
Is this repair?, solo exhibition, Bildraum Bodensee, Bregenz, Austria
Fluff, group exhibition, SULCI, London
SKINS, solo exhibition, Stadtgalerie Lehen, Salzburg
states of the body, in collaboration with Guadalupe Aldrete & Agnes Schneidewind, Eindorf, Vienna Common Ground, group exhibition within the Living Positions Festival, Im Spitzer / Odeon, Vienna
2023
SKINS (..these internal microphones; these external antennae), performative installation, Semmelweisklinik, Vienna
Body (as Place), Arts Fort Worth, Dallas, Texas, USA
2022
apnoe, solo exhibition, Roussin, Paris
Geisterpop/ulation – im Dialog mit dem verlorenen Diesseits, Kunstverein Eisenstadt
Chroniques du Centre Hospitalier Monperrin, 3bisf, Aix-en-Provence, France
2021
APEIRON – Why Austrians Now? Austrian Expedition 2021, curated by Lina Albrikiene, Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania
FROM WHICH / WHAT / WHO / DID THIS / YOU DERIVE?, solo exhibition, Fünfzigzwanzig, Salzburg
Does the angle between two walls have a happy ending? / Part II, in collaboration with Raphaela Riepl, Oberösterreichischer Kunstverein, Linz, Austria
2019
Marcelle Alix ouverte, Marcelle Alix Gallery, Paris
Does the angle between two walls have a happy ending?, collaborative installation with Raphaela Riepl, Die Schöne, Vienna
Headquarters, works in collaborative contexts by Iris Dittler / Nicolai Gütermann, Helmut Heiss / Christoph Harringer, Luiza Margan / Maya Santiago, Dino Zrnec / Nick Oberthaler, SYNT, Vienna
outer spaces of other places, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2018
Bodies and Inhabitants, Freud Museum, Vienna
The incommensurable movement of spacing, solo exhibition, Inner Space Gallery, Dallas, Texas, USA
In der Unendlichkeit sagt die Linie Hallo, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
In with the New, VBKÖ, Vienna
2017
Auf der Schwelle II, curated by Daniel Lergon, Bar Babette, Berlin, Germany
ISSIR-, solo exhibition, 3bisf, Aix-en-Provence, France
Auf der Schwelle I, Sonnenallee 90, Berlin
2016
painting is not the issue, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Vienna, Austria
Frame it. On the Relation of Action and Document, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna
AR.VI.MA, group exhibition, Castello Visconteo – Musei Civici, Pavia, Italy
Xposit/zwei sechzehn: In Memoriam Gunter Damisch, exposit, Vienna
2015
incongruent sites, solo exhibition, MUSA Startgalerie, Vienna
MESH, in cooperation with Clara Wildberger, The Smallest Gallery – Collaboration Space, Graz
2014
abita sotto la lingua, solo exhibition, Santa Maria Gualtieri, Pavia, Italy, and Palazzo Botigella Gandini Art Lab, Pavia, Italy
12000 dpi, a collaboration with Sissi Makovec and Angela Strohberger, studio das weisse haus, Vienna Révolte logique, Part II: Slave to Art: Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Iris Dittler, Sharon Hayes, Esther Kläs, Ernesto Sartori, Marcelle Alix Gallery, Paris
2013
Jeune Création 2013, Centquatre, Paris
Meaning of Things (Corso Aperto), Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy Temporäre Anordnung, Verein bildender Künstlerinnen Wien (VBKÖ), Vienna
Junge Kunst Parcours, Palais Kabelwerk, Vienna
Some roads to somewhere, Hilger BrotKunsthalle, Vienna
2012
working, Glockengasse 9, Vienna
Montag ist erst übermorgen. Junge Kunst auf Papier. Acquisitions of the Kupferstichkabinett 1997–2012, xhibit, Kupferstichkabinett, Vienna
LABOR WILDER RAUM, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna
2011
Wem die Stunde schlägt, Niederösterreichisches Dokumentationszentrum St. Pölten, Austria BücherInnen, -die, Salon für Kunstbuch, Vienna
female in progress, Kunstverein Grünspan, Feffernitz-Mühlboden, Austria
Perspektiven, OHO Oberwart, Burgenland, Austria
2010
seismograph, installation, Marmara Triennial, Istanbul
2009
états des lieux, group show with Natalia Jaime-Cortez, Romaric DeMeyer and Lucie Picandet, espace rue civiale, Paris
PERFORMANCES
2026
behandeln #3 rosi, with Agnes Schneidewind, within Posthuman Cartographies – a performance festival organized by the Sorbonne and the Berggruen Institute, Le Générateur, Paris
2025
behandeln #2 für die Nacht, with Agnes Schneidewind, Kuffner-Sternwarte, Vienna
performative intervention at JOY#2: Department Joy, by Sabina Holzer & Jack Hauser, Lombardi–Kargl, Vienna
behandeln #1 nackte zähne, with Agnes Schneidewind, NEW FEARS Gallery, Berlin
2024
SKINS, Sommerszene Performing Arts Festival, Salzburg
weights, performative intervention, Künstlerhaus / Kunstverein Kärnten, Klagenfurt
2023
SKINS (…these internal microphones; these external antennae), performative installation, Dance Identity Festival, Eisenstadt, Austria
APNOE, performance within XXYX, Echoraum, Vienna
2021
performative activation of objects within APEIRON – Why Austrians Now? Austrian Expedition 2021, Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania
Fragilität, performance within COMMON GROUNDS by Irena Eden & Stijn Lernout, Vienna
2019
transpositions, Marcelle Alix Gallery, Paris
transpositions (Version II), Parallel Vienna
Addendum, performance with object, Domenig Steinhaus, Carinthia, Austria
2018
the synesthetic field, Im_Flieger, Vienna
out of rain, falling twice, performative installation in collaboration with choreographer and dancer Barbara Sarreau, Théâtre de l’Étoile du Nord, Paris
transpositions (residue, or a barely recognized form), Tanz*Hotel, Vienna
Blind Moves, with Barbara Eichhorn, Daniel Aschwanden and Iris Dittler, Nadalokal, Vienna
2017
ISSIR-, performance within the exhibition, 3bisf, Aix-en-Provence, France
2016
ZONE (in the infinitely minute world, the very act of observation), Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Vienna A_BODY CONSTRUCTION II, performative installation, Burgenländische Tanztage Dance Festival
2015
A_BODY CONSTRUCTION I, performative installation, ScaPes Festival, Brick-5, Vienna
la faible présence, Still Moving – Festival de Performance, Vincenz Sala Gallery, Paris
2014
LOST OBJECTS, Micadanses, Paris
2013
mind is as close as you come, within S/he’s the One, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna
signals from beyond the source, within Werkstück 2013, Tanzquartier Vienna
2012
ready, but not waiting, within Still Moving Festival, Jardin d’Alice, Paris
2011
chambre–champ–chant, performative installation, Atelierhaus, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
(diploma project)
RESIDENCIES
2025
performance residency with Agnes Schneidewind, NEW FEARS Gallery, Berlin
2024
residency at Eindorf, Vienna
2023
Dance Identity residency, Eisenstadt
2022
Bears in the Park performance residency, Vienna
2020
Tanzbüro residency at SZENE Salzburg, Austria
2019
durch:formen, residency and performance days, Domenig Steinhaus, Carinthia, Austria
Transpositions – workshop and performance with students of the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design Marseille–Méditerranée, France
2018
Im_Flieger performance residency
research residency at Studio CIE La Zouze, in collaboration with choreographer and dancer Barbara Sarreau, Marseille, France
artist at Resort, Tanz*Hotel Vienna
2017
AIR SoArt Millstättersee, Austria
artist studio residency, Paliano, Italy
2016
creation residency at 3bisf, Aix-en-Provence, France
2014
Cité des Arts, Paris
AR.VI.MA, Pavia, Italy
2013
Advanced Course for Visual Arts with Matt Mullican, Fondazione Ratti, Como, Italy
PUBLICATIONS
2025
Lichtungen, exhibition catalog, Tiroler Landesmuseen
2023
COMMON GROUNDS by Irena Eden & Stijn Lernout, introduction by Anne Faucheret
2022
Does the angle between two walls have a happy ending?, in collaboration with Raphaela Riepl, Abo Verlag, Vienna
SoArt Artist in Residence Millstättersee, catalog
2021
APEIRON – Why Austrians Now? – Austrian Expedition 2021, exhibition catalog, Radvila Palace Museum of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania
2018
langsam werden, a project on processual art, in collaboration with Sissi Makovec & Angela Strohberger, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna
2017
Meanwhile, catalog, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna
2015
Phantombetrieb. A conversation with Thomas Ballhausen about LOST OBJECTS, triedere, Journal for Theory and Art
2013
Avec ou sans corps, La République de l’Art, by Patrick Scemama
article in emergence #3
The Collected Work of H.C., Mousse Publishing
Franz the Lonely Austronaut, Austrian drawing magazine
2012
Labor Wilder Raum, documentation catalog of the laboratory, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna
COLLECTIONS
Collection Cairoli, Pavia, Italy
Artothek des Bundes, Austria
MUSA, Austria
Kupferstichkabinett Vienna
Landesgalerie Eisenstadt, Austria
Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck