2026-23 blind me! LIGHT
blind me! LIGHT
a collaboration with Katharina Gruzei
public installation on view 24/7
Monira Foundation
front entrance MANA Contemporary, Jersey City
10. 2025—2. 2026
blind me! LIGHT 2023 link to full video: 16:10 min >
Mapping the locations of publicly accessible surveillance cameras within the two cities of Vienna and New York, Gruzei and Messner choreographed and tracked each other’s movement through the online surveillance access as they moved within their respective city, each carrying a full-length mirror.
Using the mirror as a device to refract the sun into the lens of the surveillance cam, they recorded each other’s actions as one camera after another was blinded by repeated flashes of the sun. At night, the mirror was switched for a high powered torchlight.
blind me! LIGHT presents the recorded evidence of the movements of the two through their respective cities. The glitched recordings become spectral artifacts of resisting public surveillance with rudimentary tools, momentarily blinding the surveillance gaze.