Mirror of the Invisible was my diploma work for AVU, and began as a research project about artworks which were taken to Sweden as war booty in 1648. I was interested in what happened to two bronze horses by the Dutch sculptor Adriaen de Vries, where they are now, what they mean today in the Swedish and Czech contexts. I have tried to find ways to combine contemporary approaches with the histories and meanings that could provide new views and layers for the meanings of these objects for a contemporary public.
The final work was a reading performance in the Schwarzenberg Palace amongst the mannerist collections. Writing letters to the protagonists of the story, General Albrecht von Wallenstein, Rudolf II, the artist Adrien de Vries, Queen Christina and the current Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf, I detailed the role of the horse in art, the fate of the artworks and their many copies through the centuries.
A web archive of the project can be found at: https://mirroroftheinvisible.wordpress.com/
Photo credits: Radek Dětinský, Samuel Maddox, Cecile Buttoud and Tomáš Vaněk
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