Markus Draper – Haus, Wand, Spiegel
German / English
16,5 x 23
128 pages, approx. 70 images, hardcover
ISBN 978-3-95476-026-8
Release: October 2013
Publisher: Distanz

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Working in and responding to architecture is a leitmotif in the art of Markus Draper (b. Görlitz, 1969; lives and works in Berlin). Opened, destabilized, and lacerated walls are a discomforting sight, associating the precarious outer bounds of the body and the soul. The art and construction project Draper realized for the Canton of Berne in a new building to house parts of the University of Berne similarly called fixed boundaries in question. A mirror measuring ca. 30 sq m that is embedded in the exposed-concrete wall of the dining hall, rather than reflecting the beholder’s own image, shows the building and the incident daylight—its surface is slightly angled, tilted back into the wall behind it. The reflection opens up a parallel space that may be read as what is “behind” the mirror, as the “unconscious.” The considerable influence psychological perspectives on architecture have long exercised on Draper’s art becomes more fully evident with a comparative look at earlier works. With an essay by Martin Germann and a conversation between Beatriz Colomina, Johannes Kuehn, and Markus Draper.