Mirror World

Yves Netzhammer's (born 1970 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland) room-sized installation appears from the outside to be merely an imageless wedge construction, but within there is a pulsing world of images. The two sidewalls are reflective, and the viewers find themselves within an apparent hall of mirrors. In the angle where the two walls meet there is a wooden silhouette of a tree and leaves scattered across the floor. Additionally three projectors display videos of violent images but also of the transformations of people, animals and plants. The images are accompanied by a complex soundtrack composed by Bernd Schurer especially for the installation. The mirrored sidewalls do not only multiply the film projections but upon entering the space the viewers find themselves being equally multiplied, their own mirror images interacting with those of the projected images. What results is the impression of a multi-dimensional universe.

Real Worlds and Alternative Worlds
As in many works by Yves Netzhammer this installation revolves around questions of contact and relationships between man, animals, objects and the world at large as well as also being a critique of civilisation. It addresses adaptation and the transformation of one creature into another. This transformatory ability queries the stability of identity whilst also considering the fundamental similarity of all living creatures. Netzhammer's installation presents an alternative to the actual world but in doing so also remains a reflection of it. The world of filmic images enter into a dialogue with the world of the viewers who themselves in turn become a part of the work.

Project A and Project B
Yves Netzhammer's installation was shown for the first time in 2007 in the Karlskirche, a church in Kassel, as a part of documenta 12's official accompanying programme. It was the counterpart to The Subjectification of the Repetition, Project A, which was being presented at the same time in the Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Project A was an equally monumental installation, in which a tilting plane led from the pavilion's façade inside. The façade's facing displayed drawings in a stencil technique, whilst the inside of the pavilion housed a 42:24 minute video. While Project A was mainly visible as an outward facing intervention, Project B's intervention was located inside. The work withdraws to an inner space from where the surroundings via the reflections on the sidewalls virtually implode. The installation is ongoing and will be on view at Kunstmuseum Bern until further notice.

Purchase of the installation: GegenwART Foundation, Dr. h.c. Hansjörg Wyss
Support for the construction of the installation: Credit Suisse, Partner Kunstmuseum Bern / Ernst and Olga Gubler-Hablützel Foundation

Curator: Kathleen Bühler, Curator of Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Bern

Images & Documents