"Curtain 3"
Exhibition 25 November 2005 - February 2006

For her first show in Munich, Vorhang 3 (Curtain 3), Berlin artist Sabine Hornig developed a special project for the gallery. Using a "new" wall, so to speak, she will reshape the space, returning it to an earlier condition. The wall will restore two rooms. A large, transparent slide between glass plates will be built as a window between the rooms. The gaze falls upon a narrow space that is completely concealed by a thin curtain. Behind it appear houses and a car parked on the street. Hornig's window provides a deceptive view from inside to outside. In reality, however, the image is a photograph taken outside of a shop window covered by a curtain, where the sky and the surrounding urban environment are mirrored, creating the illusion of a panoramic view.

Because the photograph is transparent, the gallery space behind the window will be visible in the picture. If the viewer goes into the second room, to the other side of the window, he will see through the same image into the room he has just left, and thus perceive the image along with another spatial situation. Additionally, the viewer might be reflected in the glass plate, or a visitor could appear on the other side of the glass.

In Hornig's photo installation, overlapping layers of views and perspectives melt into a single image whose spatial dimensions cannot really be grasped, owing to way the photograph and the view of the actual space blend.

Besides the window photographs, the installation will also feature one photograph independent of the architectural situation. It depicts clearly visible, often complex structures of window frames in the kind of empty shop windows and unrenovated spaces typical for Berlin. At first, the space of the shop window, with a few architectural details such as floorboards, tiled walls, etc., are perceived. Then the reflection of the other side of the street becomes visible, overlapping with the image of the interior. Finally, the viewer recognizes the real window glass and frames, with their scratches, fingerprints, or other signs of use. This simultaneous presence is entrancing and confusing at the same time.
Hornig's photographs' always precise and detailed aim at a cool matter-of-factness. Thanks to the multiplicity of their layered images, they achieve a fascinating, painterly quality.