Daniel Laufer

The title Redux stems from the latin reducere – to bring back and refers to different forms of resuscitation and reformulation, for example, of a film. ‘Redux’ also carries a subtle reference to the legend of the Golem – a being equipped with supernatural defensive abilities which becomes animated from inert matter by a magic ritual which can also be read as a general metaphor for the magic of film.

In the exhibition Redux, three free standing, framed mirrors reflect their environment. They mirror the other exhibition elements: two paintings on canvas, two mirror images on the walls and a video projection of the eponymous 15 minute film. The filmic staging expands into the reality of the exhibition space and touches on questions concerning the status of image and spectator, especially since the space itself functioned as one of the film locations and there- fore secretly reappears in the film. The works on show are simultaneously autonomous art objects and demystified props or elements in the stage setting. Through their scraped openings, the three mirror images allow a view onto projection and painting – a trick technique from the early history of film which enables the superimposition of set elements and actors. Through crisscrossing and mirror penetrating perspectives, the installation provokes the observers to constantly shift their position: the sight of reduplication, the sight of sight. The open narrative struc- tures in Daniel Laufer’s filmic narratives reveal alternative methods of reception and underline the potentiality of diverse readings. They provoke a reduplicatory and unlimited cinematographic perception.

Text by Heike Ander