bodybuilding
Elena Kristofor, Esther Vörösmarty
Parallel Vienna, Austria
2017
Spatial installation and video
Video 1 (large room): 4:13 (loop)
Video 2 (small room): 0:10 (loop)
There is no peace, no contentment with the present state of affairs. For what is, is what must be, what ought to be, but can never be. The individual is trapped in a restless pursuit of optimization, power, and recognition in a society whose values have become centered around an ego-centric core constructed from narcissistic traits. The natural tendency to emulate alpha figures or idols, to orient oneself by their values and abilities, and to grow through them, mutates in a narcissistic society into a veritable addiction: the compulsion to constantly create a new, perfected ideal out of the self, thereby securing for oneself the highest priority and recognition. An out-of-control self-regulation, subject to everyday, omnipresent narcissism, wages a constant battle to achieve a supposed ideal state and to force one’s own body into artificial shapes, manipulating its function and deforming itself in the process for the sake of the “like” – the hypocritical recognition of the present moment. In their craving for approval, egocentric individuals devote much of their time to at least mimicking their own “optimum” – driven and frantically searching for the next rush, accompanied by abstract failures – through distorted self-representation. One must be the newest model oneself – an improved version of one’s own echo from a misguided society. What was true yesterday is not enough today. The newly created creature, guided by abstract values such as beauty and fame, is merely a reflection that feeds the self-glorifying extreme of the ego. (Self-)criticism is nothing more than a nameless echo in the mirror of hubris. The megalomaniacal masses follow the social power of the narcissistic code of values. Instead of engaging in the constant process of truly self-improving self-reflection, the being submits to the judgment of anonymous reflective surfaces, yet is incapable of enduring rational criticism, let alone practicing self-criticism.
Annabella Khom
