Exhibition
Smoking Mirror
13 Nov 2015 – 23 Jan 2016
Regular hours
- Friday
- 13:00 – 19:00
- Saturday
- 13:00 – 19:00
- Sunday
- 13:00 – 19:00
- Monday
- 13:00 – 19:00
- Thursday
- 13:00 – 19:00
Address
- 32-34 Unter den Linden
- Berlin
Berlin - 10117
- Germany
Developed for the Project Space of the Ernst Schering Foundation, the installation Smoking Mirror is the first German solo exhibition of the artist Otavio Schipper in cooperation with the composer Sergio Krakowski.
About
For years, Otavio Schipper has dealt with the topic of proprioception: the perception of one’s own body and the relationship between body and space. For SMOKING MIRROR, Otavio Schipper and Sergio Krakowski were inspired by the English mathematician, astronomer, astrologist and mystic John Dee (1527–1608) and his collection of magic objects and optical devices. The exhibition pre-sents unique reflective objects as well as coordinated light and sound effects to create a space designed to elicit a state of altered consciousness similar to a hypnotic trance. SMOKING MIRROR thus explores the connection between mental activity and the cognitive awareness of one’s own body in space. It features, among other elements, a so-called “black mirror,” modeled on the Aztec (Mexica) obsidian mirror. As a cult object, this mirror played an important role in the history of Mexico: Tezcatlipoca, or “Smoking Mirror,” was the Aztec god of night and matter and held major significance for rulers, warriors and sorcerers.
SMOKING MIRROR is part of the exhibition MIRROR IMAGES in Art and Medicine, curated by Alessandra Pace, which is on view at the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité. It showcases artistic works as well as scientific experiments and objects that interrogate how we per-ceive our own body in space.
