Without You - Esper Postma

Without You is a video installation that transcribes the voice of an artwork from a future reality in which humanity has gone extinct. The artwork questions its own existence now that it has lost its audience. Does grief remain or does it rise from the ashes of humanity?

In collaboration with Maurits Koster.

Without You was made possible with the support of the Dutch Consulate in New York, the German Consulate in Los Angeles and the Mondriaan Fund.

Mirror Stage, 2021, installation view at the Gropius Bau, Berlin.

Mirror Stage, 2021, facade: 216 x 211 x 33 cm, ornament: 235 x 106 x 55 cm.
Photo: Frank Sperling

Mirror Stage revolves around a controversial intervention in the urban landscape of Berlin: the demolition of the GDR building Palast der Republik to make way for a reconstruction of the Prussian castle Berliner Schloss, which recently opened as the Humboldt Forum. The installation orchestrates a direct confrontation between the two buildings using two characteristic elements: a Prussian eagle from the facade of the Humboldt Forum faces its own mirror image reflected in a facade fragment of the Palast der Republik.

The eagle is cast in plaster using the same mould that was used in the construction of the Humboldt Forum. The cut-out of the Palast der Republik is recreated after drawings obtained from the German Federal Archives, employing the same materials used in the original building.

Mirror Stage was developed in the frame of a residency at the Martin Gropius Bau with the BPA // Berlin program for artists; curated by Boaz Levin and Anna-Lisa Scherfose. The work was supported by Villa Romana in Florence; the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (KHI) and the Mondriaan Fund.