This work was visionary a good 30 years ago and focused on the important questions related to image, attribution and media. “A young man tries in vain to enter into a dialog with his female reflection on the television screen. After a brief flirt based on the German version of the 1950 Western romance, “Broken Arrow”, his desirable alter ego vanishes again. A satire about the paradoxical fascination contemporary culture cultivates for images and a hyped sense of self, Bjørn Melhus’ early video THE MAGIC GLASS hints at how media ‘mirrors’ our phantasies, replacing human interaction with virtual reality.” (Transmediale, 2019)
Since 1990, films and installation works by Bjørn Melhus have been part of the Kassel Dokfest. As a professor for “Virtual Realities” at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, he has also interested countless students in the festival since 2002. In 2018 he was presented with the Honorary Award of the Kassel Dokfest.