45cbm: Constantin Hartenstein

In his sculptural media work, Constantin Hartenstein examines narcissistic phenomena of a digital society and its fitness and self-optimization industry. The installation "NARC" negotiates the societal pursuit of optimized individuality, which faces lonely homogeneity. Visualizing this paradox, Hartenstein shows how the fitness industry's advertising promises and their alchemy-like products are inscribing themselves into the bodies and behaviors of their users. The porch shrine, cast from protein powder particles, directs the gaze to its inner center: hermetically bounded by mirrors, the figure reminiscent of Narcissus deals only with its mirror image, while he is voyeuristically filmed by a camera. Lost in his own thought, the figure dissolves arrhythmically between the rooms into the luminous particles of his own consumption.

Welcome: Hendrik Bündge

Introduction: Johannes Honeck