on Mahony and the project Odyssey500
The artist group Mahony was founded in 2002 by Stephan Kobatsch, Jenny Wolka, Andreas Duscha and Clemens Leuschner. All four currently live and work in Vienna.
Andreas Duscha quit this year to concentrade on his solo projects.
Mahony´s working method is mainly influenced by the idea of a processual character of artwork and marked by collective development of work. We always think site specific, in sense of including the respective environment (place, history, institution, social context, politics etc.) as part of the preexisting context in which an artwork emerges. Over the years we started modifying the relation between us as acteurs and the treated topic by giving the search for sites and phenomena an importancy that exceeds reacting merely on invitation. Therefore, now the majority of our works originate on site and later are worked out in the studio and presented within an exhibition context. The processual character of artwork is a guiding principle which for us begins with an interest in a certain topic or aesthetic. Since we are four persons, the contemplation automatically becomes the character of a discussion, a permanent verbal questioning among the practical approach. Our choice for media and material always derives from the respective subject, but due to our experience with different working situations and availability of materials, it also became a decision to frequently use simple and ordinary ones.
In the last two years we started a project called Odyssey500, which was on the one hand a result of our situation in Vienna and the aim to reinforce topics and extend possibilities for interchange of ideas. We attempted being at different places to develop and realize work –besides and outside the studio. On the other hand the project also centers our main theoretical interests, so that all works we realized since 2007/08 could be seen as part of Odyssey500. They function in a certain chronological order we previously conceived and which now constantly advances, along with its state of analysis. The project itself is an artistic analysis of the cultural history of global travel, which examines the emotional connotations of the travel theme in historic derivation, constructed narratives and established myths in its reference to problems affecting real societies nowadays. In this sense it is an attempt of a contemporary artistic inquiery of phenomena such as movement, definitions of space, situatedness, allocation, translation, transport, time (etc.). The Project is built up on different temporal & contentual levels; it included so far several journeys as well as shows, performances and publications. For analyzing travelling as a cultural practice, we focus on differences and apparent antagonism of scientific method - such as measurement or classification - and subjective allocation of spaces and motifs. As the title Odyssee500 implies, in this context we consider aberrance and deviation as important elements. „To stray“ or „to be mistaken“ exist as historical as well as everyday scene. However, a detour or deviation could be a potencial space and time constitutive moment. As an origin of the unplanned, not yet thought incident and conflict it could initiate and influence a creative process.
The original motif of the Odyssey as a temporal postponement of a solution - and in various literary sources introduced by some kind of breach of taboo- has been absorbed into a wide range of variants; in the back reference to time sequences from antiquity to modernity one can, however, observe a surprising new version. The journey becomes endless, “the solution, even in the sense of a catastrophe, is withheld“ (Frank 1979). The Odyssey that never comes to an end is a special case of the tragic journey. In contrast to the one that is still anchored in an „intact mythology“, the ghost ships of modernity are confronted with a much greater kind of problem; the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean happens simultaneously to the Copernican revolution and the earth shifts from its position in the centre of the cosmos, since then mythology and religion no longer serve as a source of final release from a dreary „path of life“, that is treated again and again in the allegory of the ocean voyage and which together with the motif of the ship as body and space was a crucial topic in our last works. The flying dutchman, Franz Kafka‘s Jäger Gracchus and Arthur Rimbaud‘s Bateau ivre all draw pictures of a failing ship, rudderless and disoriented, drifting into infinity. The contemporary figure of the Odyssey is, however, no longer bound to purely geographical dimensions.
It is not only the motif itself that interests us. Reflecting it in context of realizing an artwork (leaving for a moment aside its possible commercial usability ) leads to a question about aesthetics and uselessness, whereas the concept of uselessness can be viewed in different ways. Moreover, the aestheticising of the useless shows similarities to the theme of going nowhere or as well a journey that concludes where it began. The idea to lead nowhere or to make a full circle, is an interesting aspect within the nature of progress itself. At the same time, uselessness could be seen as indication for the separation of aesthetic pleasure from direct usability. The fascination with travel themes in the moment where blank spots on maps don’t exist anymore, may be interpreted from this perspective.
Within the range of travel motifs we deal with the term expedition. All act of appropriation bears witness of a measuring of the world. This motif, represented by the expedition, derives from a geographical problematic but could be transfered into terms of artistic practice, keeping in mind the political problematic expedition to discover new territories. But there exists as well the archaeologic expedition, which represents a specific relation to time, for that it is a questioning of the past in the present. If we work with these motifs we always do so in a sense of translating and reassociating yet existing phenomena in order to frame new questions. The translation is an important device which, beyond linguistic problems, as process of transfer could develop an extra space that functions very similar to the space an artwork could create; in sense of drawing lines through history, geography and social contexts. Therefore, on an abstract level, we would describe our work as connecting different paths that are to be found within social cultural spaces, in other words our artistic approach could be described as time and site specific Navigation.
Florian Zinke and Constantin Demner were also part of mahony.
Florian produced next to other projects with mahony the movie 51 Grad, 16V sticht and Novemberrain. He lives in Bejing and is the owner of the filmproduction tree-house.
Constantin Demner took part in the projects 51 Grad, 16V sticht, Happy End Maschine and always helps with the Grapicdesign studioelastik.com.
gallery representation Layr Wuestenhagen Contemporary