51

A meditation on the proximity of distance, Walking / Endnotes (550 m. on Löwengasse / 245 m. on Untere Donaustrasse) evokes two distinct walks in the vicinity of the Palais des Beaux Arts in the third district of Vienna. While Catherine Parayre and Josh Müller move in parallel, their gazes pass one another, circling around the same neighborhood from different sides of the globe. From divergent places and times, their paths meet to become a single, scrollable surface for the collection of the PdBA.

‍

With Müller’s images in mind, Parayre’s words grasp for impressions along Löwengasse while she walks from Radetzkyplatz to the Palais des Beaux Arts. Having frequented the neighborhood nearly a decade ago, her thoughts wander in different directions, writing their way into the present. Meanwhile across the canal, Müller’s gaze stutters, searching for a place from Parayre’s text that’s both out of sight and out of reach.

‍

“I haven’t been to the Palais. I haven’t looked through the glass door. (I was never there). Everything is described. I stay on the other side of the Donaukanal. Left from the studio, then onto Untere Donaustrasse, 245 meters to the Aspernbrücke. I hold a blue filter in front of the camera, approx. 10 x 10 cm of thin film. I select 16 photographs out of 61. Behind the buildings in the photos: Löwengasse, the Palais des Beaux Arts.“

‍

While Müller’s images avert their gaze, Parayre walks directly to the entrance of the Palais, bringing the visitor along until all they’re left with is a reflection of the surroundings. Like the overall project of the PdBA, both artists remain on the outside of the building. Staring from both near and far, they search for a place that’s stuck bouncing around with other particles of the past. Trapped somewhere in between pixels, pavement, words and images, these stubborn and blissful endnotes are attached to a specific place but separated by different scales of time.