Tirana Biennale 1

 

 

Curated by Francesco Bonami

 

2001

Painted TV-sets in a mirror environment, live television

Dimensions variable

 

 

This body of work that involves TV sets and mirrors, stages and subverts contemporary broadcasting so that its hypnotic, aesthetic elements are made forms bereft of their original content. Ceci est un miroir is an installation that consists of a rectangular mirror environment in which I place a large, painted TV sculpture. Forming the mirror environment, there are 12 mirrors (8' x 4' each) that face one another, 6 on each side, and the distance between these two parallel mirror “walls” is 12'. In this mirror environment, there are 13 TV-sets, lined up against one of the mirror “walls” with their screens facing the other wall of mirrors. The screens of these TV-sets are partially painted with glass paint, creating translucent strips of color, while the rest of the screen and part of the case are painted with black opaque acrylic. The only light source in the environment is that emanating from the TV-sets, which transmit different stations. So, thanks to the translucent glass paint, the viewer can see colored strips of images coming from the TV screens. These colorful TV images repeat themselves ad infinitum in the surrounding mirrors, becoming increasingly abstract and creating with their repetition a three-dimensional kaleidoscopic painting, which both incorporates and changes with the movement of its spectator. Through aestheticizing what is already aestheticized, i.e., both the TV sets and what they broadcast, and through positioning the viewer in a hall of mirrors, it becomes quite  evident the fictional character of the media phenomena.