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A Viennese artist makes plaster casts of vulvae to show that everyone is individually beautiful. She wants to break taboos and the normative ideal of beauty.
It smells of candles and incense sticks when you enter the apartment of Viktoria Krug, 28. There are statues of women's bodies everywhere - on the walls, on the shelves, on the tables, on the radiator. The artist receives her customers in her own four walls. "It's a kind of vote of confidence and breaks the ice."
In February 2020 Krug has one Call for "Vulva Casting" started: "I wanted to make the diversity of vulvae visible and was looking for people who would be available for making molds for the creation of statues."
Krug posted the ad on social media. More than 60 women responded. A feedback that the Carinthian did not expect. "I thought that maybe two or three people would respond to my relatively unusual offer. But that such a large number of people immediately want to deal with their vulva in this way surprised me. At the same time, it showed me that it is time to finally talk openly about vulva and related topics such as menstruation, pregnancy, sexuality, health, … After all, it concerns us all."
Meanwhile the fan base has grown even more. They regularly visit women who are you Plaster cast of her vulva want to have: "From the 18-year-old schoolgirl to the 65-year-old pensioner, doctors, midwives, social workers, bank managers, therapists, bus drivers, pedagogues, shop assistants. Non-binary people, trans * people, people after labioplasty operations, mothers and daughters, religious people, couples, groups of friends. I've long since lost track of things. Just a lot of people."
This is how vulva casting works
There is chat, Krug leads through her collection of statues and photos and shows the products that she uses. "Then a declaration of consent is signed, which again records the anonymity of the whole thing in writing." As soon as everyone is ready, an impression is taken.
"To do this, the person sits down on the prepared sofa and I put a mass on the vulva. This then copies everything that is there. After about 15 minutes, the impression is taken down and you can clean yourself again in the bathroom. The impression can be the same Day, but the statue takes a while to make. " After about six weeks it can be picked up or it will come by post. Material and time costs: 149 euros.
And how do people ultimately react to the prints? "For some, this new view is in the first place naturally unfamiliar, But that's exactly what people like: that they can get to know each other from a new perspective. Dislocating with the pocket mirror is something else. Quite often people contact me months later to tell me how positively, for example, their relationship with partners or children has changed as a result."
