Zoran Todorović

Agalma, (2002/3), actions: operation, recycling, bathing. A historic perspective that reconstructs motive/topic of this work runs from the classicist patterns, nourished for centuries, of representing ideal/perfect/disciplined human body, down to a ready made body in artistic practices through 20th century (futuristic and dada undisciplined, anarchistic body; body as a main carrier of socio-political, existential and cosmological content in artistic practices of 50ies and 60ies; fragmentary postmodern and multicultural body, assemblage that substituted the stereotype of modern, unique body). It reached for technology and its time-excess production policy in relation to the one that is biologically predetermined, in order to avoid potential endangering body surplus created by undisciplined consummation of the life. A common operation ceases to be just a mere operation with intention to make undesirable, ugly, amorphous human mass which would conventionally provoke uneasiness and disgust, into traditionally nice, aesthetic object - such as minimalist sculpture in ephemeral, expandable material, multiple in limited edition of four copies. This object (x4), except its' a priori role to be nice, is also intended to be sacrificed, to be consumed, melted, to vanish so that some other body could be clean and, of course, nice. A soap becomes an artistic object thanks to the fact that its' organic structure becomes social construction, that is, it can reproduce and produce social meanings. In other words the body is the medium of the Real however multifarious that Real becomes and is manifest says Kristine Stiles.