Lada Cerar


Toilets – Made in India, 2004
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DVD video: 5 min 30 s

At a time when industrialisation is moving drastically from the Western world to the East, especially to the Asian continent, thread – introduced as an autonomous material in the field of visual arts only in recent decades – is precisely the material whose traditional essence, as well
as its close connection with the textile industry, can ideally reflect the social and economic phenomenon of the relocation of labour to the East. In this work entitled Toilets/Made in India, the artists selected the material and also the production process to put this phenomenon on a pedestal. The duo assumed the role of business managers of an enterprise hiring the services
of the cheap Indian labour force. Textile workers made gobelins according to the artists' idea, and they were paid the previously negotiated wage; according to the rules of capitalistic logic, the artists thus became fully legitimate creators of this work.
From another standpoint, this work deals with the phenomenon elaborated by the Slovene philosopher Slavoj Žižek in his writings, which the pair of artists came upon while travelling to India. The artists wrote: "On such trips, a water closet, or a continental breakfast – a standard
of civilisation in the 20th century – is a special luxury. The water closet has become an irreplaceable icon not only from the hygienic point of view, but also from the national one. Žižek wrote of various types of water closets and pointed to the German, French and Anglo-Saxon varieties as examples, in which national characters are reflected in types of water closets and
the modes by which water sweeps away the waste. As we flew by the airplane from Europe eastward, the types of water closets changed according to the national character of airports; before reaching India, we got well acquainted with all types from Žižek's description; even
more, in India we came upon an Indian 'squat toilet' and a Euro-Indian lavatory." If we would look for the common denominator of the material and contextual layers of the work
Toilets/Made in India, we could find it precisely in the fact that the artists have reflected upon
the experienced travel and events, and translated them into a humorous, socially critical artistic statement.

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Born in 1974 in Ljubljana. Between 1996 and 2001 she studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana and graduated in 2002. She took residencies in Nottingham (Great Britain, 2004), in Berlin (2005) and in Palazzo Lantier in Gorizia (Italy). She also works in a tandem with Sašo Sedlaček and in a group with Vesna Bukovec and Metka Zupanič. She lives and works in Ljubljana.

Solo exhibitions (selection):

2006 Special Place in the City-Graz, Galerie Centrum & medien KUNSTLABOR,
Kunsthaus Graz, Graz
2005 Who Is Afraid of Seniors, P74 Centre and Gallery, Ljubljana
2004 Intimate Images, Nova Gallery, Zagreb
First impression (public projection), Nottingham
Personal*, Likovni salon Celje
2003 Art as Therapy, P74 Centre and Gallery, Ljubljana
2001 Mc Lada, Contemporary visual art scene of Slovenia, SKC, Belgrade

Group exhibitions (selection):

2006 {e-a}006, sonance.artistic.network, medien. KUNSTLABOR, Graz
“Visions” Narratives, -357+65 Two generations, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz
2005 Teritoriji, identitete, mreže, Slovenska umetnost 1995-2005, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana
Mlada umetnost Evrope, MOYA, Museum of Young Art, Vienna
Čisto/Umazano, ŠKUC, Ljubljana
Parallel, Empire Gallery, Nottingham
2003 Rent a Tent, 11. Bienale mladih umetnikov Evrope in Mediterana, Athens
2000 Real Presence, Prvo evropsko in jugoslovansko srečanje študentov Akademij za likovno umetnost, Belgrade

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