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Christiane was born in Alsfeld in 1974 and grew up there with her brother, who was 6 years older, in a middle-class family. Childhood and youth are unspectacular.
After graduating from high school, she trained as a make-up artist in Cologne. A young colleague realizes a project for admission to an art college with the title "Twin Sisters! Christiane is present when two barely distinguishable girls appear on the catwalk. She is deeply impressed.
The subject doesn't leave her alone until she meets Rahel, who looks very much like her. They do a lot of things together and often go out at night. In her presence she feels confirmed, and her shyness seems to be blown away. Astonished by Christiane's hunger for identification, Rahel distances herself from her after a while.
Christiane's looking for doppelgangers again. She makes use of her skills as a make-up artist to transform ever more different people into twin sisters, then photograph them and go out with them. Always on the search for a new extension of her person, her desire becomes increasingly independent.
Under the name Christiane Fichtner she now appears quite successfully as an artist with the photographs of the doppelgangers. However, she conceals the true identity of the persons portrayed. Hardly anyone can be convinced that she herself is the motif.
By experiencing this fiction, she realizes that the pure mirror image only stimulates the viewer to seek the differences between the depicted persons - this she also felt on the catwalk at that time. However, if the similarity is not so striking, the viewer is more likely to find similarities and enjoy the tension.
A psychological expert is called in due to the complaint of a person who recognizes himself in Christiane's exhibition and a resulting legal dispute. In one of our conversations she finally asks me to publicly record her true biography.
Contrary to my professional ethos (and as a private person) I agree to do so. Text: C. K. Schiuma
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