Liverpool Biennial 2012: The Monro

Set in above a Pub and in an area which looks like a bed and breakfast or Hotel, you walk into a very basic looking room with a bed chair and desk with closed curtains suggesting its night time. The piece is by Markus Kahre and is is called No Title. At first you assume its just a standard room and you think is pretty dull and don't understand what your supposed to be looking at. Then you notice the wallpaper which has lots of the same repeated Venn Diagram saying in one ring 'Guest' and the other ring 'Host'. This is Marcel Duchamp's Equation 'A Guest + A Host = A Ghost'. So when you see this all over the wall you do get a little but creep out and the feeling of the supernatural pops up. Walking through the open door in the room you find your self in an identical looking room but the curtains are lighter so you feel like its daylight. When walking past the mirror you realise what this whole piece is about. looking straight into the mirror you can see a the reflection of the room your standing in except for the fact that you are not in the reflection! First off I ran off a little shocked and then came back and not only are you not there but you can see smoke coming through the door which you just came through. you swing round to check that your not in trouble and you just see the darkened room. What the artist is trying to achieve with this piece is the feeling of a haunting and plays along with hospitality as a haunted place is where most people will try to avoid. Making this hotel/inn/B&B a haunted place makes a hospitable environment inhospitable. I also wondered whether or not the artist is trying to put into your mind what life is like after death. You look in a mirror and you not there, so you assume he try to make me a ghost and then you look at the smoke in the mirror and you think to yourself, 'maybe this is how I died'.