ted’
site-specific installation
in former Bat'a schoes factory in Zlin (CZ),
Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlin
2013
—ted’ in Czech means now, in the present.
lighting letters, originally designed on the base of old Bat'a logotyp, mounted on the former Bat’a factory building rooftop, today Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlin
The project refers to Tomaš Bata's mania of writing Ford's like slogans on his factory walls as well as to the further development of advertisement industry and the corporate culture, the same time concerning on differences and similarities of modernism era and the present moment. It also straightly touch the history and the present of the city of Zlin.
Kama Sokolnicka, The Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín, Zlin 2014, photo Contemporary Lynx
„This cursory, slightly tongue-in-cheek approach to the past and heritage is wonderfully presented by another artist – Kama Sokolnicka – invited last year to the Prostor Zlin exhibition to Zlin – a very important centre of thought from the point of view of the modernist heritage of Czechoslovakia.
She placed a neon saying ted’ on one of the buildings of the old Bata shoe factory, on the current Bata Art Institute,. On one hand it alludes to the lettering of 1920 which is known all over the world form the brand’s logo. The red ted’ neon is like a signal reminding about the old proprietor and the creator of the emporium – Tomasz Bata. Although the heritage is a bit withered, the centre of its world has been relocated to other places (London, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and currently Switzerland), the old post-industrial buildings and the whole architectural vision of the ideal town aiming to cater for all the needs of the factory worker, is a silent witness of this magnificent design. And Sokolnicka’s red neon is a subtle symbol which shines in the night in memory of the old proprietor.
However, looking from afar it also seems to be a certain critique of the infatuation with the past, of lingering over something that existed 100 years ago. The city itself seems to be breathing the past and to be stuck in it. So maybe it means that we need to turn to the future? If so, maybe we should read the neon as a perverse allusion to the academic conference called ted, which aims to popularise “ideas worth spreading”, those which have the real power to change the world, just like the ideas followed by Tomasz Bata 100 years ago.
The artist’s intention was also for ted’ to highlight THIS moment – the NOW (now in Czech is ted’). So the neon calls us to focus on the here and now. We are not to look back, but actively create the day at hand.”
–Dobromiła Błaszczyk, Contemporary Lynx, 2014
