schlafzimmer ii/08   /   Installation   /   2008

Styrofoam, wood, light, paint, carpet, monitor, microphone, amplifier, lightboxes
240 x 450 x 950 cm

Within a mighty cube, the lone observer is received in a complex artificial world. A space immersed in dusky light is laid with carpet, dampening footsteps and stimulating cosiness. From here the eye is drawn to a bedroom, barely furnished with an unmade bed, mirror and TV. The room is immediately and completely visible, yet appears to be hermetically sealed. The entrance door and TV set are doubled in the supposed mirror— the suggestion of which is broken by the fact that the observer cannot find its own mirror-image. The bed also has no reflection.

The beholder feels closeness, both emotionally and spatially, to the bedroom — equal parts intimate and publicly exposed — as it approaches and is simultaneously held at distance. The TV and the bed represent, on the one hand, an everyday situation, whereas on the other, a direct manifestation of a shift into an artificial world, without immediately evident reasons. The fine line between familiar scenery and its sculptural-architectural reproduction is unsettling. A realistic situation appears here in extreme concentration — as an artefact it demands concentration on the existence of the moment.

All attempts to interpret this construction as reality fail given the material presence of a vague, yet powerful, atmosphere. The space has a life of its own and is, with its iconic character, to be grasped more poetically than narratively. Looking back at himself, left alone with his observations and ideas, the observer feels his own presence. Ultimately, the intruder realises how out of place he is here.