Referring to her video work “FATLife” in the exhibition “Mahlzeit” at the Dom Museum Vienna, Veronika Merklein will conduct alleged sales talks with passers-by in the context of a performance in the public space of the Zwettlerhof. In the style of product presentations, she will advertise the fictitious dietary supplement FATLife, which guarantees a weight gain of one kilo per week.

In the spirit of this year’s Vienna Art Week motto, “Challenging Orders,” the artist’s work denounces the relentless compulsion to perfect that the body is subject to today: Physical integrity, optimal functionality and attractiveness are the demanded Western social norm. If this politically, socially and economically motivated ideal is not met, there is a threat of stigmatization, paternalism and exclusion. With her work, Merklein demonstrates the billion-dollar business of the diet industry and attacks the stigmatization of the body read as fat.

With “FATLife”, Veronika Merklein not only shows that hierarchical body images are still confirmed, produced and reproduced by the media today, but she also directs a pointed gaze both at the relationship to her own fat body and at the social expectations and attributions to it.