Athletes Use Classical Sculpture Replicas as Gym Weights In an Art Project About the Value of Beauty

Lithuanian artist Augustas Serapinas explores the enduring value placed on physical beauty through his long-running Physical Culture project, which uses sculptural replicas as functional gym weights.

The Western ideal of beauty — athletic, harmonious, and balanced — can be traced back to ancient Greece, where sculpture celebrated the human form as a symbol of both physical and moral excellence. 

Serapinas further explained that, while the context surrounding beauty has changed, those ideals have endured for thousands of years.

For ancient Greeks, temples were built as spaces to honor the gods, but they also stood as monuments to human order, balance, and aspiration. Today’s gyms serve as temples of the body, where ideals of strength and discipline are pursued, repeated, and displayed.