Olga Majcen
SKIN(S)CARE -between care and violence

Skin care and makeup in contemporary societies have become far more than mere hygiene and functionality—they are now essential elements of self‑presentation and social status. Just as the daily news inundates us with global crises, scandals, and trends, these skincare rituals have become an indispensable part of our everyday life, shaped by the influence of social media, influencers, and aggressive advertising. These routines—presented as indispensable proof of discipline, success, and social desirability—intertwine with the culture of self‑care, identity, and wellness, transforming into social rituals whose symbolism goes beyond mere appearance and enters the realm of economic and cultural capital. As contemporary media currents plunge us into complex and often contradictory information, the beauty industry similarly shapes and manipulates ideas of beauty and value, paving the way for new norms and expectations in which care and beautification become both social communication and a means of positioning oneself in the world.

Through his project SKIN(S)CARE, artist Silvio Vujičić delivers a sharp critique of the beauty industry and its role in shaping social reality, clearly highlighting the interweaving of personal identity with cultural values and economic interests. By developing his own line of products—whose name, with a subtle addition of just one letter, already reflects the essence of the theme—Vujičić employs a word that dominates the media space of beauty, and simultaneously transforms it with a slight alteration that places it in a new, critical context. In this way, the name SKIN(S)CARE symbolically reveals the ambiguity and complexity of skin care as a social phenomenon, opening up space for reflecting on the boundaries between care, control, and manipulation.

The artist uses skin care not as a means of beautification but as a tool for exploring the construct of beauty and personal identity. His project transcends the conventional understanding of skincare and makeup solely as aesthetic or functional practices, revealing how cosmetics can serve as a medium for expressing subtle ideas about identity and the socially constructed nature of beauty. Within this context, he advocates for extreme skin care that deliberately provokes reactions traditionally considered undesirable, thus broadening traditional concepts of beauty and forging a highly distinctive personal style.

Vujičić challenges the common assumption that natural products are inherently beneficial for our bodies. Today, “natural” is often equated with health, as seen in the popularity of organic food and cosmetics, which are generally perceived as safer than synthetic alternatives. Against this backdrop, he creates a cosmetics line based on pure botanical ingredients—but with an intriguing twist. His products, derived from mango, fig, or wild carrot*, provoke intense reactions on the skin—rashes, eczema, pimples—displacing cosmetics from the domain of beauty creation into a new realm of resistance. His natural-based products, developed in collaboration with scientists and laboratory technicians, result in skin alterations, and visitors are invited to try these “anti‑beautifying” products on their own skin. Through Vujičić’s work, we come to understand that beauty is both a subjective and a social notion. It is subjective as it is shaped by personal preference—and social because it is established through cultural norms and solidified through socialization to align with the broader social context. In this sense, a physically beautiful person is one whose appearance conforms to prevailing cultural standards of a specific time and place.

In Vujičić’s work, the notions of beauty, ugliness, health, and illness intertwine in a way that challenges our habitual understandings of these terms. Traditionally, beauty has been associated with health, purity, and harmony, while ugliness is often viewed as the absence or distortion of beauty, frequently tied to irritation or disharmony. Illness, historically, has been perceived as something that disrupts the body’s natural state—an undesirable deviation. Yet SKIN(S)CARE blurs these boundaries, suggesting that beauty and ugliness, like health and disease, are not clearly defined categories but rather fluid, interconnected elements of the human experience. SKIN(S)CARE achieves this by placing control of application firmly in the user’s hands—from choice of where and how often to apply the creams to accepting the emergence of rash or skin damage—thus transforming such damage into a conscious, artistic act.

The provocative interest in Vujičić’s cosmetics and makeup creations lies not only in their counter‑functional role to conventional skincare but also in the challenge they present: would anyone possibly use products that intentionally damage the skin on a regular basis? We might compare this issue to tattooing. Though tattoos have a complex anthropological and social history, they are widely accepted as decorative elements of personal expression today—despite being permanent harm to the skin. Beyond conventional tattoos, there are communities that embrace even more extreme and unconventional forms of body modification—such as tattooing the eyeballs or implanting facial implants that mimic animal shapes, or forming patterned or symbolic scarring. From a normative perspective, such interventions are often seen as a form of disfigurement— anti‑beautifying. Yet to those who practice them, they express powerful identity statements and hold equal value to conventional beauty.

Another analogy is the body‑positivity culture promoted within the fashion industry. Increasingly, diversity of body types, naturalness, and personal authenticity are embraced as new standards of beauty. Educated as a fashion designer, Silvio Vujičić radically interrogates the very foundations of that system. His SKIN(S)CARE project questions not only cosmetic routines but also how fashion shapes perceptions of the body, identity, and belonging.

Vujičić’s cosmetics ask: when does beauty turn into ugliness? If skin damage is deliberately chosen and controlled—in terms of location and intensity—can it become part of personal style, and thus a new form of beauty? Are people who wear crop tops despite being overweight interested in applying his line of cosmetics to produce, say, eczema on their stomachs—or is that a step too far?

Vujičić presents cosmetics as a space of rebellion, where beautification intertwines with decay, discomfort, and the grotesque. The aesthetics of distortion blur the lines between attraction and repulsion, health and harm, exposing beauty as culturally constructed and inherently unstable. Skin care and makeup are reinterpreted as a medium for thrilling artistic consideration of bodily visual identity. In his radical materiality and aesthetic subversion, Silvio Vujičić’s SKIN(S)CARE project reveals tensions between care and violence, between the desire for beauty and its destructive potentials. His approach destabilizes entrenched assumptions about the body, health, and cosmetics, leading us into a space where intimate daily routines become a critical platform. This layered and courageous work offers no comfort—it invites confrontation: with one’s own skin, with societal norms, and with the boundaries they impose.

•List of plants used in the cosmetic products: Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Mango (Mangifera indica), Caper spurge (Euphorbia lathyris), Rue (Ruta graveolens), Wild angelica (Angelica sylvestris), Wild hogweed (Heracleum spondylium), Fig (Ficus carica), Carolina Reaper (Capsicum chinese)