Does the air know no boundaries? The artistic works of Markus Jeschaunig from Graz revolve around the fourth element as something that belongs to everyone, supposedly with no claims to ownership. In 2015 Jeschaunig appeared at the Milan EXPO with his “Agency in Biosphere” as part of Team.Breathe.Austria and in 2012 he had an airship fly in a straight line from Graz to Maribor.

Smells really don’t know any boundaries. For his “World’s Flavor” project Markus Jeschaunig has collected scents and aromas from all over Europe: At significant historical sites, in suburban areas, but also along migrant routes. For example, with a mobile still he captured the smell of a leather chair in the European Parliament and the scent of the countryside at the Turkish-Greek border. He does not concentrate all of these aromas in the world’s finest “perfume”, like the protagonist of Patrick Süskind’s famous novel, but instead in textile aroma domes and aroma points at Kunsthalle Graz, as an olfactory excerpt of Europe.

Markus Jeschaunig’s art explores the interrelations of culture and nature. He is interested in questions of ecology, urbanism and technology from the vantage point of art. Inspired by the dynamics of the various layers above our heads – the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere – the artist sets out to decipher social and political systems and to translate them into constellations that can be experienced with the senses.

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