Safe Harbour - as part of the WDWXXV edition set, 2015 - Mahony
about this work
Mahony’s work Safe Harbour was prompted by an interview between the French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada and the philosopher Nadia Tazi published in A Life Full Of Holes. The Strait Project, the publication accompanying Barrada’s eponymous solo exhibition at Witte de With in 2004. In this interview, Barrada discussed her work in photographing the Strait of Gibraltar and the impact it has on the lives of young people in Morocco as a geopolitical site of frustrated proximity, as she calls it.
As a response, Mahony used the light box as both an image case and a sculptural element, and addresses related contemporary issues and historical events, such as the harrowing circumstances of refugees caught during European border controls in the Mediterranean, or The Truth about the Colonies, an exhibition organized by the French Communist Party and a group of surrealist artists in response to the controversial Colonial Exhibition (1931, Paris), where both objects and people from French held territories were exhibited.
The light box was partly covered with rescue blankets often seen in press photography of humanitarian or military operations. Some of these blankets carried embroidered attributes or emblems one would find on towels of private clubs or beach resorts. The embroideries depict ancient Greek gods, whose names have been used for various military missions to secure the European sea borders. One blanket carried the words “there is no need to be modern,” questioning the dominant position of Western modernism worldwide. The street-side of the light box – which is also the image in the edition – carried a yellow pattern that could be associated with nets, grids, fabrics, and maps. Embedded in the grid are outlines of the fictitious modern bridge similar to the one shown on the €500 note. The combination of the grid and the bridge evoke a tension between confinement and movement, between entanglement and progress.
This edition is part of a set that was produced in the context of Witte de With’s In Light Of 25 Years. On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, Witte de With examined its history, dedicating its ground-floor gallery to a series of commissioned presentations by a select group of contemporary artists. Each participant created an image-based work that analyzed certain sediments of contemporary art history. Presented on a large-scale double-sided light box these anniversary commissions were visible to the city day and night. Throughout 2015, In Light Of 25 Years functioned as a space for artists and curators to respond to developments in contemporary art, its landscape and possibilities, departing from Witte de With’s past program.
WDWXXV brings together the ten In Light Of 25 Years commissions. Presented in a slim Plexiglas box frame, inspired by the light box itself, this limited edition portfolio features ten high quality prints by the participating artists Özlem Altin, Wineke Gartz, Camille Henrot, Germaine Kruip, Mahony, Raimundas Malašauskas, Zin Taylor, Freek Wambacq, Lawrence Weiner, and Xu Zhen. Have a look at the individual artist pages to read more about each specific edition.
