Markus Wilfling: alice is where is alice
Wednesday 7 February – Saturday 7 April 2007
Austrian Cultural Forum London
Presented by the Visual Arts Platform at the Austrian Cultural Forum.
Reflections refract reality. They reverse our vision while telling the truth; overturn our orientation while offering complete clarity. In the Austrian Cultural Forum’s new London gallery, two identical rooms stare at each other through an empty mirror frame which divides the space. To the right, one clock says ten to three. In the opposite room its hands chime backwards. On an old reading table, a book tells us about Alice in Wonderland.
On the opposite table, the backwards text proves too hard to read. By asking us to step between these two versions of reality, like Alice through the looking glass, artist Markus Wilfling confuses our most straightforward understanding of this ordinary living room. Is there a real and a reflection? An original and a copy? A right and a wrong? In doubling such ordinary objects with meticulous detail, Wilfling slows down our automatic perceptions, presenting minimal changes, yet completely inverting our world.
alice is where is alice will be Wilfling’s first UK exhibition. Born in Innsbruck in 1966 and based in Graz, his
practice focuses on subverting everyday objects through minimal changes. By duplicating a common chair and presenting it next to its black counterpart, he materialises a shadow, by cutting dripping paint out of black rubber, he makes liquid solid, and by placing a diving board in a church, he questions the object and space.
Wilfling’s signature work, commissioned for Graz Cultural Capital of Europe 2003, turned the entire skyline into a two-dimensional theatre set, by creating a fake shadow for the iconic medieval clock-tower on the hill. The Visual Arts Platform is proud to present its first exhibition in the newly renovated gallery at the Austrian Cultural Forum London, and the third in this series of artist commissions. The Visual Arts Platform aims to explore local, regional and global contexts of contemporary art by generating new links between Austria and the UK through exhibitions, residencies and artist’s talks. It is hosted by the Austrian Cultural Forum London, which has just completed a major refurbishment, and facilitates exchange between Austria and the UK in the creative fields of music, visual arts, performing arts, film, literature, as well as in various academic fields. The Visual Arts Platform is curated by Eva Martischnig and Adriana Marques, who are based in Graz (Austria) and London respectively. It began in 2006 with solo exhibitions by Constantin Luser and Judith Fegerl, and will continue throughout 2007 with exhibitions by mahony, Fabian Seiz, Gregor Graf and Nikola Hansalik.
‘alice is where is alice’ has been generously supported by Land Steiermark (Province of Styria) and Stadt Graz (City of Graz).