shaping men

The work "shaping men" examines the influence of the male nude in ancient statues on the contemporary ideal of the male body.
Based on Johann Winckelmann's "History of Ancient Art", the work embarks on a historical journey from the beginnings of bodybuilding to Hans Suren's ideas of the body and nature to the propaganda of the National Socialists, as manifested in Leni Riefenstahl's "Olympia", among others, to the depictions of the body in homoerotic magazines/men's magazines, as they increasingly came into circulation from the 1950s onwards. As different as the contexts are, the ideal of the male body as a symbol of power and beauty has persisted to the present day. The work explores the social and historical contexts in which the male body was staged, revealing the visual parallels that characterise the interplay of (homo)eroticism and power in the representation of the male body as a social symbol to this day.

5-channel found footage video collage, 5 screens, sound, 12:05 min. 2023