Concluding the Second Interval

The second project interval was particularly nomadic: Beginning at our trusted art space Reagenz and the premises of the Technical Unversity in Graz, we then took the Adriatic road to Lecce in Southern taly (with a stopover in Rimini), returning after the intensive weeks to Carinthia, Austrian’s southernmost state bordering Italy. At the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music (GMPU) work is underway to build spaces for Artistic Research, and we identified a yet-to-be-refurbished space as our penulimate domicile, baptised by us for its colour and Lynchian feel the “Yellow Lodge”. From here, it was only a stone’s throw to the Domenig Steinhaus in Ossiach, which hosted us for the concluding reflection rounds.

It is hardly surprising then, that one question asked repeatedly was how one can configure one’s work so that it can be taken along to different places. What happens with the elements that relate so much to space and place, and how do they transform as we travel with them? Is it just about what we can fit into our physical luggages, or about how we, as a group of artists-researchers working alongside each other, form a cohesive entity that provides the stability of the process? Or is it, on the other hand, an opportunity to prevent the not-yet or no-longer aesthetical artefacts and propositions from becoming too confident?

We began the interval by defining our work process with seven ingredients, each contributed by the individual team members. The action of “assembling a process” provided us with an alternative travel map that sometimes receded into background, as a certain flow of work had been established, but always resurfaced to be revisited, rediscussed. During the last week of our Yellow Lodge stay, we made ‘element sessions’ consisiting of simultaneous drawing and noting of our conversations around each element, and from the seven notations, we formed a playful crime scene map at the Domenig Steinhaus, where the nodes could be connected.