Artist: Amandine Kuhlmann

In the second half of the season, the MEP Studio presents the video installation of Amandine Kuhlmann, Cash Me Online. Created in 2023, this project, combining performance and video, explores social media as a performative space.

The artist has designed a fictional character, a hypersexualized alter ego, who operates both online and during public performances. Adopting glamorous, artificial, or suggestive poses inspired by social media trends, this character re-enacts the stereotypes that dominate these virtual spaces, exaggerating social expectations.

The project features a series of short sequences: “Mukbang” videos – a phenomenon where viewers watch young women consume excessive amounts of food – followed by the wellness advice of the “Clean girl,” a figure promoting a healthy, productive lifestyle fueled by self-help mantras. To embody these various archetypes, Amandine Kuhlmann blends images of herself with found footage. Using deepfake technology, she overlays her face onto these foreign bodies, further highlighting their artificiality and strangeness.

This work underscores the impact of social media on the commodification of bodies, particularly women’s bodies, whose societal status remains heavily influenced by these imposed standards. Cash me Online offers a critical and sarcastic perspective on these constraints, creating space for reflection and, ultimately, liberation.

Amandine Kuhlmann was born in 1992 and lives and works in Paris. She graduated from ECAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne) in 2023 and has worked for the press, particularly in the fields of women’s fashion and beauty. These experiences inform her exploration of the concept of femininity and its representations. Her artistic practice, which combines performance, photography, and video, is deeply rooted in social and political questions. Her work has been exhibited in group shows both in France and internationally, for example “A Nova Feminilidade,” Thirdbase Studio in Lisbon. She also participated in the Biennale Images Vevey in 2024.