In addition to Josephine Gerhardt, Lina Determann and Henriette Schwabe are also receiving this year’s state graduate grant (Landesgratuiertenförderung) from the HfG Karlsruhe for their project “Erika’s Daughters”—congratulations!
Working under the name „Erikas Töchter“, Jette Schwabe and Lina Determann confront one of Germany’s most recognizable faces: Erika Mustermann. Since 1987, she has appeared on German identification documents as the official placeholder identity, representing everyone expected to identify as female*. As the state’s normative template for an imagined “average,” she implicitly shapes ideas of what is considered legible, valid, and representative.
Since graduating in 2025, the duo has been researching the concept of model identities from the perspective of someone carrying Erika’s legacy. Current political debates, for example, when Friedrich Merz invokes a homogeneous “Stadtbild”, reveal how belonging continues to be negotiated and restricted through visual norms. Difference is treated as a disruption, while the complexity of social reality is reduced to normative images.
During a residency at @Theater Rampe, they continued their research on Erika, exploring new artistic approaches through the format of a casting. The Landesgraduiertenförderung enables them to further develop these approaches within the spatial context of model housing estates.
