ZÖNOTÉKA

The aim for physical and spiritual well-being is a binding force in our alienated society. There are various recipes on how to stay balanced and take ‘care of the self’, weaving a maze of numerous principles on what is regarded healthy, pure and natural.
The room installation Dazed and Orthorexic by Dominika Trapp depicts the struggle for self-therapy and stability that are each achieved by means of strict, calculated control over everyday nourishment. While pursuing a quest for self-liberation through asceticism, eating becomes a chore, a continuous, mechanical digesting of what is thought to be ‘right’ and ‘good’, rather than ‘tasty’ or ‘pleasant’.
Trapped in a bubble of paradoxes, what was considered healthy bears a deathly disease, the appetite for purity turns into a paranoid anxiety. The resulting obsession and distorted self-image spreads over the entire environment, covering the sheets and wallpaper.
Festival insight by Philippe Rives