Hall of Mirrors [ ]

Hall of Mirrors, 2007 nirosta, aluminium, wood panel, fitted carpet 177,17 x 460,63 x 291,34 inch [ ]

Markus Wilflings "Hall of Mirrors"
 
The ‚Hall of Mirrors’ is an accessible space installation of impressive size which, in its numerous cabinets, is pretending to mirror space into the eternal. Without actually using a single mirror, Wilfling gives the visitors in the centre of the artwork the impression of standing in an illusionistic architecture, in a room that is mirrored in all directions.
 
Markus Wilfling is concerned with the everyday experience, with the unrecognized or unconscious dimension of reality. He aims at disrupting preconceived concepts of perception. In his art, reality becomes incalculable and unpredictable, appearance and reality are blurred. What is virtual becomes real, and what is imaginary becomes concrete and material. In the artwork, which was specially designed for the Central Hall of Kunsthalle Krems, virtual and real spaces are interfering, even merging. The boundaries between inside and outside seem to be dissolving just like the boundaries between near and far, thus creating an unexpected dynamic movement.    
 
My works are very low key and quiet (…), they are measures taken in order to challenge perception, a conscious disturbance of familiar structures of perception, says Wilfling, characterizing his art. 
 
Markus Wilfling was born in 1966 in Innsbruck. He attended the school of arts in Graz and afterwards studied sculpture with Bruno Gironcoli at the Academy of Visual Arts in Vienna. When Graz was the European Capital of Culture in 2003, Wilfling became first known to the general public with his installation of the shadow attached to the Clock Tower of Graz. As a representative of Austrian sculpture he belongs to the most inventive and distinctive artists of the younger generation. 
 
Text: Hartwig Knack, "Spiegelkabinett", Kunsthalle Krems, 2007

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