NSFW proudly presents COMEDOWN by Madlen Hirtentreu.
Fossilised champagne, extinct dancers, and the final destination of The Endless Growth Tour — welcome to Comedown, Estonian artist Madlen Hirtentreu’s latest exhibition, and your official hangover from the Anthropocene.
Hirtentreu stages the aftermath of a world obsessed with growth, consumption, and hopelessness — a byproduct of the relentless pursuit of good coin. tbh, it feels almost inevitable.
The scene: a post-afterparty landscape, where fossilised champagne could be read like tea leaves in an empty cup; the erotic dancers who only recently strutted around with their huuuuge horns are now entirely extinct; and the surplus of human society’s alleged growth acts as the comedown dens' exotic décor. “Can you feel the excitement?” asks your enthusiastic tour guide, who looks as if they’re on crack at the end of their 12-hour workday. Combining absurdity with urgency, Madlen Hirtentreu draws on archaeological aesthetics and dark humour in order to depict what we, humans, leave behind, and not just in landfills, but in minds, bodies, and ecosystems.
“I collect decaying atoms and bring them back to life in reconstructed forms, preserving memories of their lost life while also introducing a sense of acceptance or lightness into their new being.” – Madlen Hirtentreu
Comedown is set against the backdrop of ironic meme culture, algorithmic amnesia, and environmental collapse. It asks what the feeling is if irony runs dry — even on social media — when we no longer understand what it is we’re laughing at. So, Hirtentreu sews together the emotional numbness of the digital age, the weaponisation of satire by reactionary politics, and the deliberate collective forgetting that allows the extinction of species, meaning, and care; to feel alive. Rather than offering universal solutions or lecturing us on morale, the exhibition provides space to feel, see and hear — there is live music that can sound until the end of Forever, honouring John Cage’s 639-year-long piece —, and understand where or how we’re living and what it means. In a time of relentless noise and attention economics, “Comedown” insists on the importance of calm to notice more of what’s happening around us, because otherwise, life just goes by, literally.
The exhibition is complemented by an essay by Gregor Kulla, a composer, performance artist, writer, critic, and model. The digital edition of the text will be available online later in the week while printed copies can be collected at the gallery throughout the exhibition.
Comedown is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Estonian Ministry of Culture.
* You can listen to the exhibtion soundtrack in the link below!
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Madlen Hirtentreu (b. 1993) is an Estonian multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture and site-specific installation. Her practice explores memory, history, and materiality through forms that blur the boundaries between archaeology, speculative fiction, and industrial aesthetics. Hirtentreu’s works often take the shape of fragmented bodies or abandoned structures — traces of what once was, hinting at futures that never fully arrived.
Hirtentreu holds a BA in Visual Communication from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan and an MA in Fine Art, Sculpture, and Installation from the Estonian Academy of Arts (2018). The artist is currently pursuing studies in jewellery and blacksmithing. |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gregor Kulla is a composer, performance artist, writer, critic, and model. Originally from Põlva, Estonia, they now reside in Vienna, Austria. In general, Kulla’s work draws on gender and feminist studies, queer culture, drag performance and historically women-centred activities, and Eastern philosophies. Their writing has been published in CURA, Trickster Magazine, Estonian Literature Magazine and other international and Estonian publications.
Their music is available on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. Links in @guregooru bio. #comedown