The Hulks Garden: Lucca Süss

Opening: 21st March 2025, 6-10 pm

Performance: 21st March 2025, 7.30 pm

The Hulk's Garden is the first collaboration between visual artist Lucca Cora Süss and performer Liam Rooney. Their collaboration culminates in a performance expressed within an installation. 

The "Manosphere" has become a significant cultural and ideological space where masculinity is negotiated, reinforced, and staged. On platforms like forums, blogs, and social media, hypermasculinity is not only celebrated but also strategically employed. This ecosystem ranges from moderate discussions about the challenges of modern masculinity to more radical groups that spread misogynistic and antifeminist rhetoric. The leading figures of the "Manosphere" – whether podcasters, self-proclaimed "Alpha Males," or fitness influencers – often represent a caricatured version of masculinity, where the body is imbued with aggressive self-sufficiency and a tradition of strength and hierarchy. The "Manosphere" is not confined to discourse alone but is firmly rooted in the material world. It’s not just about ideas but also about products that need to be sold and a drive for concrete actions. In this context, wellness culture within the "Manosphere" serves as a seemingly apolitical vehicle for radicalization by linking individual optimization with ideological ideas of purity and self-discipline. Dietary supplements and fitness routines become symbols of moral superiority, opposing perceived societal decadence. Here, wellness is portrayed as a survival strategy in the "war against men" and as a tool of self-empowerment in an allegedly feminized society. The players in this "conglomerate" deliberately mix commercial interests with political messages to appeal to their audience, which is marked by uncertainties and fears of losing traditional gender roles. Their narratives have long since left the obscure corners of the internet and reached the mainstream. Andrew Tate, before his YouTube channel was banned, had over 11.6 billion views and was the third-most-searched person on Google in 2023. Personalities like Alex Jones or Tucker Carlson achieve higher reach with their content than established media: Carlson’s first show on X (formerly Twitter) after leaving Fox News reached 120 million views. Even seemingly niche trends like "Looksmaxxing," which originates from Incel forums and now appears in over 150 million TikTok posts, carry political undertones and signal a societal shift. Hypermasculinity and Its Parody Within the "Manosphere," the male body is increasingly pushed to its limits. The transformation of the body through bodybuilding goes beyond personal health and becomes a signal of belonging to an idealized and extreme form of masculinity. The obsession with physicality – muscle size, symmetry, and definition – creates a masculinity that teeters on the edge of parody. Although it appears to be the epitome of strength, this form of hypermasculinity simultaneously mocks the ideals it embodies. This tension is crucial as it reflects the paradox of the "Manosphere": an overcompensation for perceived weakness that only amplifies the fragility of these ideals. Masculinity in Crisis: The Creation of the Alpha Male The "Manosphere" develops a new archetype of male identity: the Alpha Male or "Chad" – an exaggerated figure whose body serves as a symbol of power and strength that exceeds the limits of human ability. This ideal transcends humanity and emerges through extreme self-optimization, technology, and sometimes performance-enhancing drugs. Bodybuilders interpret these ideals in different ways. Bodybuilding is not the product of a fascist body cult but a postmodern phenomenon that celebrates the malleability of the human body and explores the limits of what is physically possible. By exaggerating their bodies, bodybuilders create an aesthetic that transcends traditional notions of gender. Female bodybuilders are often seen as "too masculine" to be "real women," while male bodybuilders evolve into a kind of travesty of masculinity. Naked except for a small thong, they pose in front of an admiring, mostly heterosexual, cisgender male audience. Through their exaggerated, almost grotesque forms, they cross common norms and enter the realm of Camp – a space that thrives on exaggeration, excess, and an ironic embrace of what it caricatures. Hypermasculinity becomes an ironic mirror of itself. Rather than being perceived as a symbol of pure strength, it becomes a spectacle to be consumed. The Hulk's Garden The bodybuilder questions with his practice the right-wing rhetoric of the "Alpha Male" by shifting its boundaries. Through deliberate exaggeration and permeability of these boundaries, he invites us to enter the land of the Terminator – the Hulk's Garden. 

The "Manosphere" has become a significant cultural and ideological space where masculinity is negotiated, reinforced, and staged. On platforms like forums, blogs, and social media, hypermasculinity is not only celebrated but also strategically employed. This ecosystem ranges from moderate discussions about the challenges of modern masculinity to more radical groups that spread misogynistic and antifeminist rhetoric. The leading figures of the "Manosphere" – whether podcasters, self-proclaimed "Alpha Males," or fitness influencers – often represent a caricatured version of masculinity, where the body is imbued with aggressive self-sufficiency and a tradition of strength and hierarchy. The "Manosphere" is not confined to discourse alone but is firmly rooted in the material world. It’s not just about ideas but also about products that need to be sold and a drive for concrete actions. In this context, wellness culture within the "Manosphere" serves as a seemingly apolitical vehicle for radicalization by linking individual optimization with ideological ideas of purity and self-discipline. Dietary supplements and fitness routines become symbols of moral superiority, opposing perceived societal decadence. Here, wellness is portrayed as a survival strategy in the "war against men" and as a tool of self-empowerment in an allegedly feminized society. The players in this "conglomerate" deliberately mix commercial interests with political messages to appeal to their audience, which is marked by uncertainties and fears of losing traditional gender roles. Their narratives have long since left the obscure corners of the internet and reached the mainstream. Andrew Tate, before his YouTube channel was banned, had over 11.6 billion views and was the third-most-searched person on Google in 2023. Personalities like Alex Jones or Tucker Carlson achieve higher reach with their content than established media: Carlson’s first show on X (formerly Twitter) after leaving Fox News reached 120 million views. Even seemingly niche trends like "Looksmaxxing," which originates from Incel forums and now appears in over 150 million TikTok posts, carry political undertones and signal a societal shift. Hypermasculinity and Its Parody Within the "Manosphere," the male body is increasingly pushed to its limits. The transformation of the body through bodybuilding goes beyond personal health and becomes a signal of belonging to an idealized and extreme form of masculinity. The obsession with physicality – muscle size, symmetry, and definition – creates a masculinity that teeters on the edge of parody. Although it appears to be the epitome of strength, this form of hypermasculinity simultaneously mocks the ideals it embodies. This tension is crucial as it reflects the paradox of the "Manosphere": an overcompensation for perceived weakness that only amplifies the fragility of these ideals. Masculinity in Crisis: The Creation of the Alpha Male The "Manosphere" develops a new archetype of male identity: the Alpha Male or "Chad" – an exaggerated figure whose body serves as a symbol of power and strength that exceeds the limits of human ability. This ideal transcends humanity and emerges through extreme self-optimization, technology, and sometimes performance-enhancing drugs. Bodybuilders interpret these ideals in different ways. Bodybuilding is not the product of a fascist body cult but a postmodern phenomenon that celebrates the malleability of the human body and explores the limits of what is physically possible. By exaggerating their bodies, bodybuilders create an aesthetic that transcends traditional notions of gender. Female bodybuilders are often seen as "too masculine" to be "real women," while male bodybuilders evolve into a kind of travesty of masculinity. Naked except for a small thong, they pose in front of an admiring, mostly heterosexual, cisgender male audience. Through their exaggerated, almost grotesque forms, they cross common norms and enter the realm of Camp – a space that thrives on exaggeration, excess, and an ironic embrace of what it caricatures. Hypermasculinity becomes an ironic mirror of itself. Rather than being perceived as a symbol of pure strength, it becomes a spectacle to be consumed. The Hulk's Garden The bodybuilder questions with his practice the right-wing rhetoric of the "Alpha Male" by shifting its boundaries. Through deliberate exaggeration and permeability of these boundaries, he invites us to enter the land of the Terminator – the Hulk's Garden.