Reinhard Mucha

Sometimes he places these objects in boxes lined with dark felt, which are reminiscent of jewellery cases, or cabinets for cutlery or valuable scientific instruments.

Seen through glass against the dark interior, the objects become difficult to decipher. A clear view is prevented by our own reflection, and the fact that Mucha defines the surface of the glass by adding metallic strips that suggest an elaborate security device. The works are therefore layered with different views. We look at the surface of the glass. We look through the glass. We look at what lies behind the glass. And while trying to overlook the glass and its effects, we also look at ourselves and others reflected in the glass. This Duchampian strategy complicates – if not frustrates – the physical experience of looking. It can also be seen as a commentary on the processes and structure of memory.

Reinhard Mucha’s work often concerns (and is literally gathered from) sites of passage or transit. For TRACE he relocated the installation Eller Bahnhof (1983) to the Tate Gallery. Originally constructed in Düsseldorf, the work was subsequently installed in Stockholm, where it was set into the newly built walls of the renovated museum. Mucha was so surprised by the hasty carpentry of the walls that he decided to work with this exposed structure in subsequent manifestations. In this way, each successive installation contains physical traces and memories of the others.

Stockholmer Raum, 1998-99
i Der Bau (Auszüge aus dem Großen Kalender), 1998
ii Eller Bahnhof, 1983, 1998
iii Krupp, 1997, 1989
iv Untitled, 1993
Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
Exhibited at Tate Liverpool