Competing Projects 2025
Grow It, Show It! A Look at Hair from Diane Arbus to TikTok DISTANZ Verlag
Hair has always been used to send political messages and signal personal convictions. A medium of both public representation and intimacy, hair marks profound social shifts, reflects changing ideas, and can become a tool of transformation and self- empowerment. Hair serves as a (sub)cultural code and symbol of political power and emancipatory liberation; it is an object of politics of the body and queer discourses.
The catalogue combines a rich selection of pictures—including fine art photographs and imagery from fashion and social media—with an artist contribution and ten interdisciplinary essays from art history and cultural studies to shed light on the manifold aspects of hair, with a focus on the political, religious, and social dimensions that manifest themselves in fine art, fashion, and advertising photography.
