Elena Horlau

REPLACE - Preisträger Deutscher Multimediapreis in der Sonderkategorie Medienkunst

The art work "REPLACE" won the German Multimedia Award mb21 in the special category of media art.

Laudatio by the jury(translated from German):

“Every day, we are bombarded by countless visual stimuli. Whether in social media, on websites or on TV, on billboards, in stores or in magazines: We encounter desires, consumption, advertising and, not infrequently, propaganda everywhere. They unconsciously influence our purchasing behavior, our idea of beauty, values and norms - and our view of ourselves. With her project “REPLACE”, Elena Horlau approaches this topic in a memorable way. The 24-year-old art student experiments with virtual backgrounds, reverses the effect and replaces the faces of the viewers in her interactive installation with a self-created flood of images instead of the background. What we see is provocative, overwhelming and yet does not allow us to avert our gaze. The jury is impressed by the simplicity with which the theme has been effectively and aesthetically implemented, indeed truly staged. It offers space for the viewer's own thoughts, discussion and critical questioning, and the images on the viewer's skin burn themselves vividly into their memory. A well-deserved main prize in the special category of media art. Congratulations!

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