Sales People and Marketing Specialists Needed

This collaborative project by Sofia Mobilia and Lisa Marina Dorfschmid blurs the lines between documentary and portrait photography. Shooting on film is central to Mobilia’s practice, with layering and transparency as fundamental elements.

This collaborative project by Sofia Mobilia and Lisa Marina Dorfschmid blurs the lines between documentary and portrait photography while developing its own distinct visual language.

Analog photography forms the core of Mobilia’s practice. She captures seemingly incidental details that carry emotional significance, turning them into unique portraits of time and atmosphere. Her images evoke nostalgia, while a subtle sense of humour and an attentive eye for the peculiarities of everyday life introduce a playful dimension. Photography becomes a form of remembering and storytelling, translating personal experiences into visual narratives. Layering and transparency are fundamental to her work, serving as aesthetic and stylistic devices while connecting the fleeting act of shooting on film with the hands-on processes of the darkroom.

Dorfschmid’s performance Sales People and Marketing Specialists Needed reflects on value, visibility, and the absurdity of artistic labor. Humor, critique, and spectacle come together in a scene that both provokes and seduces: a mermaid lies on crushed ice in a metal tub, somewhere between fish-market theatrics and art-world fetish. Above her, white plastic fish hang from hooks on a makeshift gallery rail, labelled Symbol of Taste, Fresh from the Studio, Artifact of a Utopia, and Speculative Goods. Passersby are invited to shout into a microphone—like fish vendors—in exchange for a small piece of art. Inspired by Hamburg icons such as Aal-Dieter, the performance turns selling into an act of celebrating, questioning, and exaggerating the mechanisms of the art market. By distorting them through satire, it becomes a playful form of commentary. The performance was first presented at Art Basel 2025; in a later iteration, a baked cake shaped like a fin was passed through the audience as part of the proceedings.