First Monograph: Christian Kosmas Mayer

In 2022, Phileas launched a new series of annual publications. The First Monographs are intended to provide an overview of the work of the most promising Austrian and Austria-based artists, and to build international awareness of their practices. This month we are publishing the second in the series, dedicated to the artist Christian Kosmas Mayer (born 1976, lives and works in Vienna).

From the sapling of an oak tree awarded to African American athlete Cornelius Johnson at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, which today towers over a residential neighborhood in Koreatown, Los Angeles, to the remarkable story of an extinct Pyrenean mountain goat which was briefly brought back to life before going extinct once again, the work of Christian Kosmas Mayer produces and preserves a constellation of narratives and historical remains that are often on the verge of disappearing, or have already been rendered imperceptible.

In doing so, he transforms the minor and forgotten into material artifacts, discursive objects, multi-media installations, and performances. Linking technology to memory and care, his practice explores the methods by which important issues can be approached in conceptually and aesthetically surprising ways: through techniques of reversal, of compressing and stretching time, and of looking at things from both ends at once.

The publication features contributions from a diverse range of authors reflecting on individual works and exhibition projects by the artist. They include Dr. Noit Banai, Associate Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University; Prof. Liv Nilsson Stutz, Professor of Archeology at Linnaeus University, Sweden; artist Mark Dion; Dr. Sarah Wade from the University of East Anglia; journalist Timo Feldhaus; art critic Seph Rodney; and researcher and author Stephen Zepke. These commissioned texts are accompanied by several chapters of images, intuitively arranged to reveal the visual connections between Mayer's works.

The First Monographs are designed by Marie Artaker, and published in English by DISTANZ Verlag. Founded in 2010, DISTANZ publishes books on contemporary art, photography, architecture and design with worldwide distribution.

Phileas was founded in Vienna in 2014 as an independent philanthropic organization funded by the contributions of private members. In 2023 we formed a partnership with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport to create a new organisation named Phileas - The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art.

For further information about Phileas, please visit phileas.art or contact us at office@phileas.art.