First Monograph: Christian Kosmas Mayer
The second in our annual series of First Monograph publications is dedicated to the artist Christian Kosmas Mayer. Offering the first comprehensive overview of Mayer’s practice over the past decade, this fully-illustrated publication explores individual works and exhibition projects through commissioned essays by art historian and Associate Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University Dr Noit Banai; archeologist Prof. Liv Nilsson Stutz of Linnaeus University, Sweden; artist Mark Dion; art historian and University of East Anglia lecturer Dr. Sarah Wade; journalist Timo Feldhaus; art critic Seph Rodney; and independent researcher and author Stephen Zepke. Each of the authors examines the connections between technology, memory, and care in the artist’s collaborative and multi-faceted practice from their own specific vantage point.
Christian Kosmas Mayer (born 1976 in Sigmaringen, Germany, lives and works in Vienna, Austria) has developed a body of work that produces and preserves a constellation of narratives about historical remnants that are often on the verge of disappearance, or have already been rendered imperceptible. His projects, which are often the outcome of extensive research and close collaborations with specialists across various disciplines, transform the minor, forgotten, and obsolescent into material artifacts, multi-media installations, and performances.
The First Monographs are an annual series of publications produced by Phileas that aim to introduce the work of the most promising emerging Austrian and Austrian-based artists to a wider international audience. For this publication, Phileas once again collaborated with the German publishing house DISTANZ and graphic designer Marie Artaker.
