Building Modern Bodies

A visual essay on the history of bodybuilding as art history, including various media and materials, originals, reproductions, art works and living exponents. Why did humans start shaping their bodies as if they were both sculptor and sculpture? When and with whom did this “iconic turn” of western body culture take place? In how far is the hybrid, hyperbolic culture of bodybuilding of the postmodern linked to the fine arts? And what does it mean when workouts are once again branded as “functional” and the bearded hipster doing squats resembles old German “gym daddy Jahn”? The exhibition comes complete with a pump station, lectures between gym equipment and panel discussions.