My artistic practice locates itself in different fields, foremost it oscillates between art and sociopolitics. I strongly advocate for body politics and for normalizations of disability and especially normalization of psychological dispositions. I am not a studio worker as such but someone who loves to work project-orientated, mostly within the media of performance, text and photography. In my works I do adapt and translate visual pop-culture into my interests and means but I also use poetic texts to transport feelings of fear, grief and trauma into artistic work.

Fat people are 1.6 times more mistreated in the doctor’s office than their slim counterparts. Statistically they go to the doctor’s later than needed, sicker than needed. Fat people fear being transferred to the hospital because of biased maltreatment, hate and triage more than they e.g. fear Covid-19. Artist and fat activist Veronika Merklein will continue working on the topic of medical bias and real stories about maltreatment at the doctor’s office. Humor is part of Merklein’s artistic approach. The project is supported by the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport, Austria and the Austrian Cultural Forum Ottawa.

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 The German artist Veronika Merklein (*1982) lives and works mainly in Vienna (AT). As an artist she works within different media with the focus on Performance Art. Her art orbits around performance immanent topics, pop-cultural phenomenons as well as “the pure an brutal (inner)life of human beings”. Starting off with her own body she investigates body politics for the last ten years. Veronika Merklein enjoyed her artistic education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT) and the School of Art and Design Kassel (DE). She presented her artwork among others at Wiener Festwochen, Vienna (AT), Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago (US), at “Neuer Kunstverein Wien”, Vienna (AT), Kaskadenkondensator, Basel (CH), Fridericianum, Kassel (D), Secession, Vienna (AT), Kiasma, Helsinki (FI) and from time to time at home. Veronika Merklein received scholarships i.a. of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York City, Austrian Chancellary, Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture, Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Since 2016 the artist is represented by the Gallery Michaela Stock in Vienna (AT).