In the Mirror

Created in 2007, Chantal Akerman’s installation In the Mirror is, like most the others, based on her filmmaking work. This 4 min 45 loop is a scene from her 1971 movie, L’Enfant aimé ou Je joue à être une femme mariée. It features Belgian actress Claire Wauthion, who plays the role of the mother in the film, half-naked, her back turned to the audience, reflected into a mirror. She can be heard analysing her own body in a very methodical way, almost like an autopsy.

This installation was created specifically for the exhibition in Mexico, Ellipsis, shown at the Tamayo Museum, from October 4^th 2007 to January 6^th 2008. Akerman’s art was shown amongst works by Lili Dujourie and Francesca Woodman, in a curation made by Australian art historian and curator Lynne Cooke.

“Comprised of a re-edit of a short scene from an early work, Mirror 1971/2007, shows a young woman dispassionately scanning her features, appraising herself. Given the vantage point of the fixed camera, she defines herself and thereby constructs her identity as an object marooned in the empty depths of the mirror’s illusory reflection in a vacuum”. – Lynne Cooke, curator of Ellipsis.

As in her other video installations, Akerman uses splintering effects: the body facing the mirror, the reflection in the mirror being seen by the viewer and the viewer viewing themselves in the installation.

With In the Mirror,Akerman explores the relationship between oneself and its body, juxtaposing a certain intimacy and distance to the physical body. Sometimes the words are nice, sometimes they are harsh. This reflects how one is perceived through the expectation of the perception by others, as well as the norms regarding beauty and gender.