For the fifth edition of 17(joy), curator Sebastian Cichocki has invited the Irish artist Deirdre O’Mahony to present »Joy #5: a (sort of) Retrospective Exhibition«, an exhibition composed of an interview, found objects, traces of artworks, ephemera, and sounds, taking over the space at Lombardi—Kargl in Vienna.

Opening: 9 APRIL 2026

For the presentation of »Joy #5: a (sort of) Retrospective Exhibition in Vienna«, Deirdre O’Mahony turns the space of Lombardi—Kargl into a sparse but resonant field of traces. Dirdre O’Mahony’s work centers on the politics of landscape and the relationships between rural and urban areas, as well as rural sustainability and food security. Instead of completed artworks, visitors encounter fragments, an interview laid out like a quiet testimony, found objects, unfinished pieces, raw materials, vegetables, maps, correspondence, and drifting sounds. These »gleanings« , gathered together with curator Sebastian Cichocki, echo the historical practice of collecting what remains after the harvest: a method that here becomes a way of showing artistic labour through what accumulates, what survives, and what refuses closure.

The exhibition also serves as a visual footnote to the text »Land Art as Useful Art: Sebastian Cichocki in Conversation with Deirdre O’Mahony« , published concurrently by L’Internationale Online. Presented within the exhibition in the form of a newspaper, the conversation offers a broader context for the constellation of objects and sounds gathered in the space.

Joy #5 becomes a compact, vibrating constellation: part archive, part warning, part invitation to reflect on the relationships between land, community, and artistic practice. O’Mahony’s long-standing focus on rural sustainability meets Cichocki’s curatorial interest in ecological histories, turning the gallery into a space where attention, rather than spectacle, becomes the central form.

17(Joy) is supported by Lombardi—Kargl, Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport (BMWKMS), and ERSTE Foundation.

Header image: Deirdre O’Mahony’s screening as part of the Postartistic Assembly at the Floating University in Berlin. Photo: Joanna Chwiłkowska, 2024