Today as in the past, superstition yields strange fruit, promising compact explanations for a world that is ever harder to comprehend and offering deep meanings for personal fates. In so doing, this vague, dark power can bring about disaster in accordance with a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” From a theoretical perspective, this is a phenomenon of synchronicity: Ghosts appear where there is an observer. In pre-enlightened times, the cat – especially the black cat, which serves as a metaphor in the German language – was seen as a mystical animal, heralding misfortune.

For three nights, the mysterious feline messengers roaming around the Mikulov Castle in the Czech Republic were tracked using surveillance cameras. The dark omen was both expected and conjured up in a convivial round in the “Chat Noir,” a shack hammered together from sawmill waste. As soon as a black cat appeared, its dark prophecy was welcomed with a round of champagne.

2009 Installation, performance
Shack made of sawmill waste, ca. 4 m x 3 m x 3 m
4 night vision surveillance cameras
control monitors, sound system
23 maps showing possible locations of black cats
(different frames and formats)
Chandelier, schnapps and champagne

• Reference URL fr.wikipedia.org