A closer look is a must if we want to begin to appreciate the reflecting material and reflexive effect of German-American artist Werner Klotz’s array of Wahrnehmungsinstrumenten – his Instruments of Perception from today’s standpoint, better still one taken a step aside from the exploding Art of Exhibiting currently vying so with the media’s thirst for sensation. The aesthetic appeal of the Instruments of Perception is undeniable. They are ‘catoptric’ objects created as much with the viewing of their environment in mind as with the aim of being viewed themselves. It is interesting now as it was interesting then, to observe how in Werner Klotz’s oeuvre, following an artistic logic, they entered into a symbiosis with the closed-circuit video installations but have ultimately left that stage to today’s world-wide Public Art.
Especially in his current public installations and projects, Werner Klotz succeeds in raising the intense art of self-experience begun in the earlier example, onto a plane of experiencing the world, and in setting up a relationship between intersubjectivity and the as yet little researched phenomenon of interobjectivity.