Plastic and Perfection, 2023-24

Exhibited for the first time at the Villa Massimo in Rome and the second time at the Academy of Arts in Berlin, the installation ‘Plastic and Perfection’ is in a constant state of flux, being expanded and reassembled in the process. In reference to classical objects and the order of European museum practice and staging, Moshtari Hilal places her profile, her research and her criticism in similar display cases and on corresponding pedestals. Hilal shows sketches, overwritten photographs and a 3-D bust commissioned in Rome. The self-portraits critically examine the history of Eurocentric ideals of beauty; symmetry, hairlessness and plastic surgery. "Plastic und Perfection" cites the research for her book "Hässlichkeit" (Ugliness).