CDoupbles :: cybeRATtack

 

veroniKATZEkova

“cybeRATtack”

("CDoupbles")

2025

"cybeRATtack" exposes a hidden inhabitant within the word cyberattack: the rat.

In English, the idiom “to smell a rat” means to sense that something is wrong—to detect a threat before it fully reveals itself. Suspicion emerges instinctively, often ahead of visible evidence.

Across many European cultures, the rat carries strongly negative connotations. It symbolizes betrayal, stealth, moral decay, and infiltration. As a metaphor, it often describes a deceitful or disloyal figure—one that operates in the shadows and causes damage from within.

Placed inside cyberattack, the rat becomes more than a linguistic coincidence. It sharpens the meaning of the term: an attack that is not only technical, but also insidious—hidden, invasive, and difficult to detect until it is already at work.

"cybeRATtack" draws attention to this layered reading, where language itself reveals the nature of the threat.

* Part of the exhibition “wAFFENstillstand in friEDENsgefährdeten Zeiten”, Chapter 3, 21 March – 16 May 2026. On view 24/7, Display window, Atelier 12, Münzgrabenstraße 24, Graz, Austria

CDoupbles :: kampFEINsatz :: militäREINsatz

 

veroniKATZEkova

“Fein & Rein” (de)

2025

de. kampFEINsatz = en. combat operation

de. fein = en. fine

de. militäREINsatz = en. military operation

de. rein = en. pure

“kampFEINsatz” and “militäREINsatz” expose how violence is linguistically softened through the seductive promises of fein (fine) and rein (pure), embedded within. Borrowing from pop aesthetics and advertising language, the piece mimics the mechanisms that package war as clean, precise, and necessary. The collision of playful surface and destructive imagery reflects a present in which military action is not only normalised but carefully branded. What appears loud and entertaining reveals a disturbing clarity: even war is sold to us as something efficient and sophisticated, almost admirable.

* Part of the exhibition “wAFFENstillstand in friEDENsgefährdeten Zeiten”, Chapter 3, 21 March – 16 May 2026. On view 24/7, Display window, Atelier 12, Münzgrabenstraße 24, Graz, Austria

CDoupbles :: rekruTIERen :: deserTIERen :: deporTIERen :: malträTIERen :: inhafTIERen :: profiTIERen

The series “Hautnah (-TIER-)” stages the dehumanising and inhumane nature of war and military conflict in general as a physical, personal, painful, permanent, and objective experience. It reflects how language itself can expose mechanisms of violence, control, and objectification.

The focal point is tattoos reading “TIER” (animal in German) placed on different body parts and across different identities: on soldiers—whether freshly recruited or deserting—on humans in camps or prisons, or as henna tattoos on women, framing women as a distinct category within military conflicts, including as targets of gendered violence. All become inscriptions on the body under systems of coercion.

Within these linguistic constellations, only one term—“profiTIERen”—deviates from the direct register of violence. While the others relate to coercion, humiliation, imprisonment under inhumane conditions, or the denial of basic needs, “profiTIERen” instead points to a more abstract, systemic logic: it exposes meticulous calculation, greed, moral detachment, opportunism, selfish gain, and cruelty embedded in structures that benefit from violence rather than directly enacting it.

All works are part of the exhibition “wAFFENstillstand in friEDENsgefährdeten Zeiten”, Chapter 3, 21 March – 16 May 2026. On view 24/7, Display window, Atelier 12, Münzgrabenstraße 24, Graz, Austria.

* “Hautnah” (German: literally “skin-close” or “up close”) refers not only to physical proximity and intimacy, but also to experiencing something in a very personal, direct, and immediate way. In this context, it also points to the inscription of political and systemic violence directly onto the body.

"rekruTIERen" (de)

de. rekrutieren = en. Recruit

de. Tier = en. animal

"deserTIERen" (de)

de. desertieren = en. desert

"deporTIERen" (de)

de. deportieren = en. deport

"malträTIERen" (de)

de. malträtieren = en. to maltreat / to abuse / to mistreat

"inhafTIERen" (de)

de. inhaftieren = en. to imprison; to detain

"profiTIERen" (de)

de. profitieren = en. to benefit; to profit (from something)