Video-artist Kim Engelen

London/UK, week 4, 2012

[Bridges] Part I
Question to myself, should I put the round mirror sticker on the face? I have to experiment with it how it will look and what should be the exact size and shape. I am thinking to use in this case black and white for the picture. So that the little mirror will ‘blend in’ to the image. In order that at first you probably don’t see it, but when you take a closer look, you will stare at yourself.
Yes; I want ‘you’ to be there. I want you to be part of the design, so that you are not only spectator but also author and subject at the same time. The sticker will be stuck on the head, it is my head but it becomes hidden. So you can identify easier and see your face in the face of the protagonist. Because you look with your eyes (in your face) and thus see your face when you look into the small mirror. Also it could give an element of mystery to the picture. Who is under the sticker you might wonder. If you look at more then one photo from the series you probably recognize the same figure in the pictures. The mirror could become the bridge between you and me, we become one. We migrate into each other. We are both present at the bridge. Photo’s last on even after death of the portrayed person, but you are alive when you are looking into the little mirror.

• Read: 
• Zarina Bhimji, With an introduction by Marina Warner, 1995
• Walter Benjamin, Paris, capital of the 19th century, 1935, read online»
  
• David Tresiliana, Paris, capital of the 21th century, read online»
• Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man at the Bridge, 1938, read online»

• Expo-visits:
• White Chapel Gallery, London/UK, pics»
• Wellcome Collection, London/UK, website»
• PM Gallery & House, London/UK, pics»
• Gasworks, London/UK, pics»
• Tate Modern, London/UK, pics»

• Film/Video:  
  
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo, 2011
• David Fincher, The Social Network, 2010

• Meetings:
• Sarat Maharaj, Translation in the Age of the Global Assembly Line
• Zarina Bhimji
• Gertrud Sandqvist, The Great Utopian Texts

• Feedback:
• Sarat Maharaj: Thank you for your contribution, for the keywords, bringing the photos and preparing questions. You are a conscientious person.

Kim Engelen, [Bridges] Tower Bridge No. 4, London, UK, 2012