Exhibition catalogue
»Kodak Young Talent Award 2000–2002«

A new instrument of the beautification industry is causing upheaval: Botox, an extremely hazardous poison that, highly diluted, is injected subcutaneously and smoothes out wrinkles by paralysing the facial muscles. Some see it as a welcome miracle cure against the ravages of age. Others conjure up the risk of an expressionless society that rencounces individual countenances in favour of beauty. It looks as if the protagonists of »New Morning«, the new series by Marc Baruth and Bozica Babic, have used Botox intensively. Extremely smooth skin, faces without feeling, and a certain uniformity. This is not pretty but disquieting. The vacant stares, the lack of interpersonal communication also cause irritation. Reproduced faces are easily smoothed. Doll-like creatures smile from the covers nowadays, courtesy of digital image manipulation. Real people try to emulate these ideals. Beauty is good business. Marc Baruth and Bozica Babic have not used digital image manipulation to beautify their models in the time-honoured sense, but to depict a sinister vision that provokes questions. Where is it that man is drifting? How will the human body develop in the genetics age? How will humans communicate in the future? The models’ peculiar beauty enhances feelings of ambivalence, of irritation.