Hugo Roelandt

The installation is part of Research about the Actual Aesthetic Ideal. This project consisted of an installation and a performance. The installation featured 16 life-size black-and-white nude portraits of m and women, each photographed from both front and rear. Visitors were invited to create their ‘ideal’ body by completing a survey, asking them to assemble an ‘aesthetic ideal’. In an accompanying performance, Roelandt painted five nude models in vivid colours as they posed in stances reminiscent of Michelangelo’s statues. Through this project, Roelandt sought to challenge societal norms surrounding body image and the aesthetic standards imposed by both classical art and modern media. By doing so, he asks us to consider our individual standards and norms.