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BLACK MIRROREnglish translationSelektion - Ninth November Night Heiner Müller 1988 |
| A story by Stephen King. An American schoolboy, twelve or thirteen years old, fascinated in his small-town boredom by documents on the German concentration camps - the way his classmates are by Superman - the formula of his fascination: THEY JUST DID THOSE THINGS... How does a friendly person like Helnwein stand making his - excellent - painting into a mirror of the terrors of this century? Or is it that he can't stand not doing it? Does his mirror just reflect the attitude of the century? TERROR WITHOUT END IS BETTER THAN AN ENDING IN TERROR. It comes from the over-evaluation of death, a consequence of "statistics" making it taboo. Perseus guillotines the Gorgon in the mirror -, and when the head falls, it is his own. How many heads does a person/man have in our age of mirrors? |
 | Black Mirror, Self-Portrait 1987
70 cm x 52 cm polaroid Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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Helnwein, Black Mirror by Heiner Müller |
| A story by Stephen King. An American schoolboy, twelve or thirteen years old, fascinated in his small-town boredom by documents on the German concentration camps - the way his classmates are by Superman - the formula of his fascination: THEY JUST DID THOSE THINGS... At his daily bus stop, he recognises a face he has seen in photographs, under a black cap with skull insignia and above a black SS uniform. They boy blackmails the unidentified murderer to tell HOW DID YOU DO THOSE THINGS. The murderer tells to save his life. Curiosity becomes the urge for real experience: the two of them found Murder Inc. and rid the small town of dogs, tramps, and other "unworthy life". ... How does a friendly person like Helnwein stand making his - excellent - painting into a mirror of the terrors of this century? Or is it that he can't stand not doing it? Does his mirror just reflect the attitude of the century? TERROR WITHOUT END IS BETTER THAN AN ENDING IN TERROR. It comes from the over-evaluation of death, a consequence of "statistics" making it taboo. Perseus guillotines the Gorgon in the mirror -, and when the head falls, it is his own. How many heads does a person/man have in our age of mirrors? |
| Heiner Müller, Frankfurt am Main, 1988 |
| First publication: |
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DER UNTERMENSCH Gottfried HelnweinEdition Braus, Heidelberg and J&V Verlag, Wien, January 1988, ISBN 3-925835-07-5. Published for the exhibition "Der Untermensch", Gottfried Helnwein, Self-portraits, Musée d’Art Moderne, Strasbourg, 1987 |
| Further publications: |
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"NINTH OF NOVEMBER NIGHT" Installation by Gottfried Helnwein, between Ludwig Museum and the Dome of Cologne. CatalogueMuseum Ludwig, Cologne, September,17 - November, 30, 1988 Musee' De L' Elysee Lausanne, June, 22 - August, 30, 1990 => INSTALLATION "NINTH OF NOVEMBER NIGHT" BETWEEN LUDWIG MUSEUM AND THE DOME OF COLOGNE |
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HELNWEIN Helnwein - The MonographPublished for the Helnwein - Retrospective at the Marble Palace of the State Russian Museum St. Petersburg. Edition with English text - ISBN: 5900872556 Edition with Russian text - ISBN: 3-930775-31-X Palace Edition, St. Petersburg, 1997 . Second edition: Koenemann, Cologne, 1998 Texts in English, German and French. ISBN: 3829014481 |
| texts by Alexander Borovsky, Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art, State Russian Museum St. Petersburg Peter Selz Klaus Honnef William Burroughs Heiner Müller => Helnwein, Retrospctive at the The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg |
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