• 
• Mahalia Kohnke-Jehl (France)
  public performance

  South-West District, Yerevan
  June 25, 2015

As a guest artist at the ‘Art Commune’ AIR Program (ACSL) (March-July, 2015), Mahalia Kohnke-Jehl refined a manner of artistic expression that can be described as a conjunction of ‘existential poetry’ and material objects. The existential poetry is ‘traditionally’ perceived through ‘intangible sense of organs’, and this kind of poetry is usually characterized by a special kind of non-narrative statements. On the other hand – on a metaphoric level – the poetry can be considered as genre that effuses from the ‘heart’ and underlines the exclusiveness of the poetry’s authorship. These emotional and often ‘sacramental’ remarks of Kohnke-Jehl seem to stand in contradiction with the materiality of visual objects that the artist produces as an adept of ‘techne’ – the cultural paradigm where painstaking efforts in producing art objects are directly proportional to their higher or lower valuation.

‘The Path of Swallows’ was a live public performance where a metaphoric action was presented. It is known that swallows nidificate and weaving their nests in unobtainable, hard-to-reach verticals, and the wild life instinct never allows them to make a simple displacement on to easier nest-weaving points.
The performance symbolizes overcoming of the (im)passible ‘paths’ by collective, co-performative efforts (the artist invited students of the Art College of the Armenian National Center of Aesthetics as co-participators).

Mahalia Kohnke-Jehl (b.1990) lives and works in Paris. The earlier stage of her artistic practice was evolving at the Fine Art School of Nantes with later admitting at the Beaux Arts de Paris (art studios of Ann Veronica Janssens and Michel Francois). She participated in several group shows in Paris, Nantes and Bruxells.
Mahalia Kohnke-Jehl is a current artist-in residency at the ‘Art Commune’ International AIR Program (ACSL).

Acknowledgment: Susanna Gyulamiryan – Artistic Director of the ‘Art Commune’ AIR Program, Samvel Baghdasaryan – director of the Art College (NCA), Yerevan
Liana Mkrtchyan – coordinator of the Art College (NCA), Yerevan
Students of the Art College (NCA): Khalatyan Areg, Mkhitaryan Siranush, Hosyan Gohar, Bojolyan Mary, Bojolyan Anna. Verdyan Anahit, Soghomonyan Edgar, Hasratyan Vivien, Kilichyan Vardan, Gharibyan Elen, Poghosyan Karine, Mazlumean Valentina