VANITAS – SELF-PORTRAIT

VANITAS – SELF-PORTRAIT
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video loop 1,54'

Video Vanitas – Self-portrait presents a hypnotic image of the continuous dissolution of the author's face, skull and brain. The repetitive liquefying interplay between the exterior and the technologically-visualized exterior posits the question of visible and invisible, physical and mental. However, the image of the skull is not only a metaphor for the transience of life and the inevitability of death; in relation to the sound of rhythmic respiration it evokes death as a faithful companion of life and its faithful shadow, and in turn illuminates the meaning and value of life, heightening the consciousness of human existence. – Uršula Berlot, 2012

'Through the central motif of the skull, the exhibition Vanitas formulated a logical allegorical (allegoricality as understood by Walter Benjamin, in the field of new media) conclusion to a passage of reflections into the reflexivity of the medium of video. The principle of symmetry, which is associated with mirroring, blended with the techno-emanation of the measurements of the skull. Benjamin says, and here he hints at the technically reproducible art: »From the point of view of death, life is the production of corpses.« Memento mori. There is also a tactile-performative side to Uršula Berlot’s opus, when the artist includes the fragility of her body into the subtle weaving of spatial configurations from materials, light and videos. The artist herself, just like the visitors of her exhibitions, enters a net of reflections which reached a temporary artistic resolution in Vanitas, while the exhibition also opened up new artistic research questions.' – Aleš Vaupotič, 2017