“Cause every reflector does cause actor.”

Easy to miss on the huge Vulkan terrain, a small red brick entrance signposted only with two small lettered mirrors leads into a musty bunker. This is Nicola Richter’s (diploma designer) chosen spot for her installation “The Narcissus makes the Sisyphus”. Two myths are combined: Narcissus, the adolescent who was incapable of loving anyone else but himself and fell in love with his own reflection. Sisyphus, who is bound to an eternity of frustration caused by endless and pointless work, never reaching his goal.

Everyone (especially designers?) is prone to self love. But self love means always looking at one’s reflection without actually reflecting on it, criticising it, laughing about it and moving on. Self love means making no progress.

Nicola Richter (Gestaltungs§richter) visualises this thesis – and others – using broken mirrors, barbed wire, chains, a shrieking robot dinosaur and elephant and scribbled writing on the walls and floors (sorry, no photographing allowed). The thesis of self love preventing any progress is quite plausible. I would have understood that without all the shrieking robots, mirrors, barbed wire and stuff.

The other theses and their possible connection to Narcissus and Sisyphos, however, require a little more thought and I still can’t see them visualised in the installation other than by handwritten text. Perhaps it might have been more of a challenge to both the visitors and the designer Nicola Richter to translate the less obvious into an installation.

As the designer is on site, just go ahead and ask her to give you a guided tour. Thought-provoking in many ways. After all, “new edge thinking” is her slogan.