OHO Projects, Marko Pogačnik

- OHO Projects, Marko Pogačnik
1970
Thermo-fax, 4 sheets stapled
29,7 × 21,1 cm

The central work involving OHO’s collective identity was Marko Pogačnik’s “Project OHO.” In formal terms, Pogačnik started with simple geometric shapes, which he then developed into complex structures. These shapes, however, were models for the relations within the group and between the group and its various contexts … Pogačnik inscribed a complex of circles into the squares and thus presented a system of spheres, which again were the “out-of-the-world sphere,” the “world sphere,” the “group sphere,” and the “individual sphere.” This complicated work demonstrates nicely how the four individual positions of the group members, in their differences and mutual relations, could become the basis for the group’s complex relational structures, and how the group structures could enter relational structures of a higher order. An individual enters the group; the group enters the world; and the world is part of the “out-of-the-world” sphere. That also meant that an individual entering the group who seeks dynamic and at the same time balanced relations with other group members not only becomes one of the group’s constitutive elements, but also, by searching for the balance in the group, seeks a balanced position with the world (nature, culture) and with the spiritual, cosmic realm. Strictly speaking, “Project OHO” is not a work; it is merely a conceptual demonstration and analysis of the relations in the group. The real work was the group itself.

Cf. Igor Zabel, ‘A Short History of OHO.’ In: “OHO” Exhibition catalog. Moderna galerija Ljubljana. Frankfurt: Revolver, 1994. p. 132 f.