Céline Ducrot + Cathrin Hoffmann
Hardest Kinds of Soft

In Hardest Kinds of Soft, the works of artists Céline Ducrot and Cathrin Hoffmann enter into a thematic and visual dialogue to reflect on being human and corporeality in the (post)digital age. Particularly in their juxtaposition, their paintings and sculptures explore new perspectives on the ambivalences and challenges of an increasingly virtual hyper-reality.
A precise airbrush technique gives Céline Ducrot’s paintings an ultra-smooth, synthetic appearance. Combined with a great attention to detail, a visual world emerges that blends gaming aesthetics with ethereal sensuality. Constantly oscillating between the familiar and the strange, tenderness and aggression, intimacy and distance, her works unfold complex, ritualistic relational dynamics that draw viewers into the artist’s enigmatic visual realms.
Cathrin Hoffmann examines the relationship between the physical body and digital existence. She creates hybrid, amorphous figures that exist between analogue and digital worlds, appearing both mechanical and geometric, yet also fluid and grotesquely distorted. Hoffmann skilfully engages with movements of classical modernism, only to reveal their blind spots—from the structural inequality between genders to uncritical enthusiasm for technology and progress. She examines how the digital world influences our resonance and the living presence we experience in direct interaction and human connection.
Together, both artists address aspects of alienation and estrangement, surreal to hyperreal, uncanny and enigmatic moments. Their aesthetics connect the artificial with the organic, while female-coded figures remain at the centre of their works.
 
Céline Ducrot (*1992 in Fribourg, Switzerland) lives and works in Biel/Bienne CH. She is a graduate of the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig and exhibits internationally, including in 2023 in the group exhibition FEMBOT, The Hole, New York City, at the National Gallery, Prague CZE, Kunsthaus Biel, Biel/Bienne CHE, Antichambre Bern CHE, Kunstraum Satellite, Thun CHE, KRONE COURONNE, Biel/Bienne CHE. Her work was honored at the Swiss Design Awards 2018 and the Prix Anderfuhren 2018 and was nominated for the Swiss Design Award 2022. As an illustrator, her work has been published in various publications and institutions such as Die Zeit, FAZ Quarterly, Pro Helvetia, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich and WOZ die Wochenzeitung.
 
The German-Iranian artist Cathrin Hoffmann (*1984 in Rotenburg (Wümme)) lives and works in Berlin. She trained as a graphic designer and has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, the Public Gallery, London, Great Britain, the Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin, Germany, the Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr, Mülheim, Germany and the X Museum, Beijing, China. She has also received residencies at Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy and at PLOP, London, Great Britain. Her works are part of public collections in China (X Museum, Beijing and Longlati Foundation, Shanghai), Spain (MEDIANOCHE0, Granada), Australia (Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne) and Brazil (Museu Inimá de Paula, Belo Horizonte).