WANDERING ON THE WILD SIDE
A photo and art project by Mona Fux & Iris Weirich
“Man is not himself. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth.“
Oscar Wilde
Our joint art work is focused around our fantasy figure Sir Reynard aka Don Reinaldo, a fox of noble
descent who emerges from the mythical reign of the last impenetrable forests in order to perambulate
human civilization.

Since ancient times, the fox has played an important role in the creation of myth and the narrative
tradition of various people and cultures. Known for his craftiness, cunning, superiority and strategic
skills – and from a scientific perspective – not fully domesticable, he symbolizes the love of freedom
and the art of living.
The peak of this literary reception is represented by Goethe's Reynard the Fox and even earlier by
the medieval Reinke de Vos.Sir Reynard has adopted his name from his famous predecessor,
yet otherwise our foxy nobleman has little in common with this – from a contemporary view –
rather one-dimensional depiction. He's rather a creature of black romanticism.
As a border crosser between wilderness and civilization, he combines natural ferocity
and unpredictability and the aestheticism of past epochs. He's an artist, a scholar, a magician,
a scientist and explorer, a statesman and a bon vivant – in a word he's a renaissance man
or rather fox.
He's possessed of the immortality of the driven. For him, immortality means – among other things –
the ability of absorbing history. This is not only a curse to him but also the opportunity to satisfy
his unrestrained curiosity and thirst for knowledge. As a time-traveller he's on an eternal peregrination.,
everywhere at home and yet nowhere.

„Malheur! Malheur à moi que le ciel en ce monde a jeté comme un h?te à ses lois étranger“ ,
says a line by Alexandre Dumas.
Sir Reynard took a step further, he has learned the laws of this world without loosing to them.
Like a shaman takes in the lives of his fellow men for healing purposes, he takes in lived history
in order to experience it for himself and to understand it.

In the beginning of our narration in images and texts, Sir Reynard starts to write down his memoirs.
Through a collage consisting of memories, backflashes, dream sequences and visions,
unfolds a colourful, even though often dark universe of the history of mankind. Snatches of visual
and literary references from cultural history continue to appear as a central theme.
He has met them all: Merlin, Shakespeare, Goethe, the Marquis de Sade, Casanova, Count Dracula,
Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust, Napoleon, Sir Francis Drake, Columbus and Marco Polo,
Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer and Goya, Zorro (= span. fox) and Desperado.....the great characters
who have changed the course of history and the art world as well as the icons of popular culture alike.
And something strange happens: in his experience, Sir Reynard himself takes on these identities,
he becomes a multiple personality, a wandering outlaw of his own dark mind (cp. Lord Byron,
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage), a transmigrator of souls, who absorbs the roles of his counterparts.
In this teatrum vulpis, man becomes a cipher, we see man as a fox – or is it rather
the fox in human form?
In our view, no genre is more suitable for this depiction than staged photography.
Within our project Wandering on the Wild Side we draw on the unlimited possibilities of this special
variety of photography merging with theatre and cinematic narrative. Mona Fux embodies Sir Reynard
with the aid of an elaborately crafted fox mask and differing period costumes made up by ourselves.
This makes it evident that Sir Reynard's cousins are to be found in the Commedia dell'arte as well
as among Japanese No and Kabuki theatre. We create our images in stage-like room decorations,
in the middle of modern street life and in nature. Sir Reynard explores real places, but also sceneries
of his own mind.
When we go out onto the street with our fantasy figure, confronting him with the city environment,
and making him explore historic sites and move among real settings, there's an effect of confusion.
Suddenly the common daily surroundings turn into an absurd decoration. Seeing and perceiving is
newly defined.
We started out with the nearly inexhaustible cityscapes of Berlin with their unique contrast of historic
structures and urban anarchy and we're planning to continue with further European capitals.
Our project will be presented in book form and in exhibitions set in specially decorated premises
that will be conceived as a synthesis of the arts.

Mona Fux (performance, installation & organization)
Iris Weirich (mise-en-scene & photography)

©Iris Weirich & Mona Fux, 2007