Mark Boulos (2013)

As part of AND 2013, FACT presented the work of Mark Boulos, and internationally recognised artist and filmmaker. His work boasts a pioneering approach to expanding notions of documentary film and video practice, having won numerous international awards.

The show included three pre-existing works and one new work, Echo, commissioned and produced by Forma in partnership with FACT. Echo was Boulos’ most ambitious work to date.Echo is a large-scale, immersive video installation in which viewers encounter a ghostly ‘reflection’ of themselves that moves and speaks as they do in real time. The work was developed with the collaboration of Professor Olaf Blanke, Director of the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Brain-Mind Institute in Lausanne and recalls classical representations of Echo and Narcissus, an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Echo has been supported by the Wellcome Trust, The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation,The Mondriaan Fund, Pro Helvitia and Arts Council England.

The presentation at FACT also included a selection of Mark Boulos’ past works: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (2008), The Origin of the World (2009) and No Permanent Address (2010).

Image credit: Mark Boulos, Comrade Suleiman, 2010, photograph courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.