Mirror Images

Guenda Bernegger, Helen Hirsch, Vittorio Gallese

Mirrors extend our sense of reality by enabling us to observe our own body so they are emblematic of a separation and reconciliation between subject and object, physical and virtual. The theory of mirror neurons postulates that we possess neurons that fire both when we act and also when we see that same action being performed by others. It explains why we are capable of emulating other people's actions, which is an essential activity to the learning process, and why we empathize with members of our community, which helps preserve its cohesion. Thus, as if perspective were inverted, we, ourselves, become other people's mirrors. Exhibition: Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (11.02.-30.04.2017).