Merzmensch - Hat Seller

From the series: HalluciNation
Paper: Hahnemühle Fine Art Archival Print
Sheet size: 40 × 40 cm with 1 cm white border around the motif.
Year: Edition of 2025
Edition: 3 + 1 AP
Signed, dated and edition numbered by the artist on a separate label.

Merzmensch – Hat seller

How many hats does it take to become someone else?

In "Hat Seller," Merzmensch leads us into a claustrophobic corridor lined with identical hats—and almost identical faces. In the center stands a man in a trench coat, expressionless, perhaps waiting, perhaps guarding something we're not meant to understand. The symmetry is unsettling, the repetition oppressive.

This is not a shop, but a ritual space. The hats are not commodities, but masks. The man is not a salesman, but a witness to countless attempts at identity. The longer you look, the more the scene becomes a meditation on conformity, control, and self-expression.

Part of the HalluciNation series, this work plays with the grammar of cinematic suspense and surreal architecture. René Magritte meets dystopian wardrobe.