La performance... montre en outre que le regard du spectateur s'attache à la copie plutôt qu'au modèle. Conditionnés par les média, nous ne percevons plus la réalité qu'à travers ses reproductions. L'original (la vie) est chassé par son double inerte.

Colette Garraud 1981

While the original constantly changes – not due to exhaustion alone –, the viewer remains stuck with the status quo: he is relieved of contributing his own thoughts and feelings.

Detlef Blümler 1989. Translated by e_CR editors

Während das Original sich - nicht nur durch Erschöpfung - ständig verändert, … verharrt des Betrachters Blick auf dem Status quo: er ist des (Mit-)Denkens, des (Mit-)Fühlens entledigt.

Detlef Blümler 1989

Exhibition of Jochen Gerz next to his Photographic Reproduction, was particularly effective in revealing the process of observation as demonstrated by chance passers-by in the street. They gave the photograph more of their attention and seemed to believe it more than they did Gerz’s physical presence. This behaviour suggests that we are always looking for the secret behind reality. As Jochen Gerz says, “The artistic form has a criterium we can examine and determine: its visibility. We would really like to consume ourselves just like we do the objects we produce and own. We are our communication, but we don’t have ourselves yet, even though we would like to, like a collector owns “his" picture. We are not satisfied with ourselves, we would like to be like the pictures we make, so lasting, so final, so vertical. The word for what we would like to own is relatively new, it is communication. Since it has existed, it has become a monument for all that we have been missing... That, which increasingly bothers us and terrorizes us is everything that "only" lives. We act defensively towards life, as if we were the governors of images, as if we had to defend our images against ourselves.

Andreas Vowinckel 1992