ted’

ted’ in Czech means now, in the present. 

site-specific installation in former Bat'a schoes factory in Zlin (CZ),
Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlin
2013

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.

“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."

—Contemporary Lynx