Mirror, Mirror… – Verena Tscherner

interactive (online) installation und performance

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The interactive installation Mirror, Mirror… is based partially on the fairy tale of Snow White, and partially on the Greek myth of Narcissus, who conducts a concrete examination of his own virtual image. The original idea was to produce an interactive video installation in real space. However, due to the Covid-19 crisis, this was converted into an online performance.

The installation raises the following questions:

Do user profiles on social networks blur reality too much?

Can the separation of this real-digital “fusion” be restored?

Can a concrete interaction with one’s own body in partnership with its digitally-created mirror image lead to an intensified awareness of the physical body?

I would like to answer these questions through this interactive (online) installation and performance.

Mirror, Mirror… was first exhibited at this year’s Angewandte Festival from 23.6. – 26.6. It was shown via online streaming, and also as a video performance in the digital art showroom in the MQ. There were 2-3 time slots per day, in which the performance would be streamed live on the website of the digital art class.

The second showing of this project was in its original form of a physical exhibition, held at the Improper Walls gallery in the 15th district, for the show “No One Told Me”. There, Mirror, Mirror… was presented as an interactive video installation with disposable gloves, and displayed from 15.7- 31.7.

The third form is a combination of the first two. It will be another video performance that is filmed from the physical installation and shown at this year’s “Parallel” at the end of September, via the digital art class of the University of Applied Arts (Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien).

Thanks to the grant from the Austrian Philanthropy Foundation (Stiftung Philanthropie Österreich), all three versions of the interactive video installation Mirror, Mirror… could be realized and shown.

A summary of the video streams can be found here.