Timothy Taylor Gallery

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“The characters in a tragedy, the air they breathe, the settings, are sometimes more
absorbing than the tragedy itself, as are the moments before and afterwards, when
the plot is at a standstill and the dialogue is silenced.” – Michelangelo Antonioni

Mirror is a major new CinemaScope film presented as a double screen projection by Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet.

Inspired by the work of Antonioni, Mirror creates an atmospheric image of the ‘in between’, the nameless sphere between belonging and isolation. A woman, a man, guests at an evening party; a love affair evaporates. The images shift, objects and people disappear and recompose.

Frozen tableaux are animated by light alone. The light creates connections but also isolates the figures and separates them from the surrounding space. Like the axis of a mirror, the single image is separated into two halves. Mirror visualizes its characters’ experience of decentralization and dislocation.

The single-channel projection Beacon similarly evokes the atmosphere of the ʻin betweenʼ through a reverie on our romantic connotations of the sea: as container of history, exotic underworld, and means of escape or travel. Horizon lines of sky, sea, shore and coast become boundaries, and markers of a periphery.

Beacon is a montage of different locations by the sea, from places as diverse as the Phillipines and the Irish Sea. Combining travelogue footage and appropriated clips from feature films, the result is a single, imaginary locale.

Müller and Girardet have been working collaboratively since 1999, resulting in projects ʻPlayʼ (2003), ʻManualʼ (2002), and ʻPhoenix Tapesʼ (1999). In 2002 the Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, held a collaborative exhibition of Müller and Girardet, that travelled to Milch at Five Years Gallery, London.

In conjunction with our exhibition, Müller and Girardet will be in conversation with Ian White at Tate Modern on 7th May.

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Matthias Müller (b. 1961, Bielefeld) has gained a reputation as Germanyʼs most talented maker of short films, with a substantial understanding of the materiality of film as an art medium. Müllerʼs passion for found footage, which he manipulatvirtuosity, has resulted in works such as Vacancy (1998) and Phantom (2001).
Müller has been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in major museums and institutions such as Tate Modern, London; International Centre of Photography, New York; Migros Museum, Zurich; Kunst Haus Dresden, Dresden; The New Museum, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; as well as Manifesta 3 (2000) and Documenta X (1997) among others.

A monograph entitled ʻMatthias Müller – Albumʼ is available, with essays by Stefan Grissemann, Kathrin Becker, Mark Gisbourne, Elisabeth Bronfen and Angelika Richter, published by Revolver Verlag 2004. ISBN 3-937577-26-2

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Christoph Girardet (b. 1966, Langenhagen) has a formidable reputation for working with found footage, often digitally editing single sequences or narrative elements into rhythmic loops. Emotion and perception are heightened, resulting in works such as No Forever (Golden) (1997) and Enlighten (2000).

Girardet has been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in major museums and institutions such as the Kunstverein Hannover, Germany; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, P.S.1, New York among others.

A monograph entitled ʻChristoph Girardet – A Stolen Life. Found Footage 1991 – 2003ʼ is available, with essays by Michael Tarantino, Marcel Schwierin, Stephan Berg and Michael Girke, published by Modo Verlag 2003. ISBN 3-922675-96-4

In related news:
• Beacon 2002 has just been awarded the Video-Kunst-Preis at the Marl
Skulpturenmuseum, Germany. Part of this prize is a large exhibition in 2005
at the Skulpturenmuseum.
• Müller has just had his first solo Museum exhibition at the Neuer Berliner
Kunstverein in Berlin, curated by Kathrin Becker (March 18 – May 2 2004)
• Play and Müllerʼs solo work Home Stories 1990 are being shown in ʻPlaylistʼ,
at the Palais de Tokyo (February – April 2004).
• Müllerʼs 1998 film Vacancy, now in the Tate collection, was recently exhibited
as part of the permanent collection at Tate Modern.
• ʻPhantomʼ 2001 will be exhibited in a solo screening during April 2004 at The
Rhode Island School of Design, USA.
• ‘Phantom’ 2001, was recently shown at the first ICP Triennial, ‘Strangers’, at
the International Center of Photography, New York (September – November
2003).

• Download the press release (PDF)