Eulenspiegel - Owlmirror or Ugluspegill in Icelandic by Katrín Ólína is a graphic art installation at Reykjavik Art Museum that opened just days before Iceland's banks and the country's economy collapsed in the autumn of  2008. 

Part of “ID Lab,” a much-anticipated exhibition showcasing works by other important Icelandic artists including Hrafnildur Arnardóttir (a.k.a. Shoplifter) and collaborative group The Icelandic Love Corporation, Ólína’s 85-square-metre installation is a query into mythology, languages, time and space.

The installation was composed of a wall mural, two video animations and a mysterious mirror.  At one end of the installation, a circular “white hole” projection depicted a swirling, creative source ejecting Ólína’s imagery; At the other end an animated “black hole” tunnel absorbed these visual elements back in again. In between, Ólína’s fixed wall illustrations took on a dynamic narrative.  Ólína worked on the animation with Caoz in Iceland and musician Gisli Galdur. 

Eulenspiegel is a tricster figure that originates from German folklore and means "owl mirror".  Although his tales are widely known, his name is relatively obscure. He has been described variously as an "avenger of peasants, a representative of the oppressed, a romantic loser, a rebel, a nilhilist, a callous judge of humanity, an embodiment of German motherwit, a critic of language, a good-for-nothing, a cataloguer of Low German humor, a symbol of Satan, a parasite....a traitor to humanity, a cynic, and a representative of a new age."[1] 

At one end of the installation, a circular “white hole” projection depicted a swirling, creative source ejecting Ólína’s imagery; At the other end an animated “black hole” tunnel absorbed these visual elements back in again. Ólína’s otherworldly graphics fused to the walls thanks to specialized films fashioned by material manufacturer 3M. 

Simplified version of Eulenspiegel video. Owl Mirror. Laminated circular mirror (2008).

In Eulenspiegel, viewers encounter fragments of stories, and they can start reading into the piece from whatever point they like. As Ólöf Sigurdardóttir, curator of “ID Lab,” describes Olina’s work, “The astounding images fuel the viewer’s imagination; He embarks on a journey armed with his own feelings and realm of ideas. Thus the work becomes a place at the border between real and imagined space, both in the viewer’s mind and the museum space.”

[1] Openheimer, Paul. Till Eulenspiegel: His Adventures. Garland Publishing, New York, 1991.