Imamo Los Anđeles kod kuće / We have L.A. at home

During this pandemic, did you wish to be a plastic fruit from Aliexpress, which, unlike you, has been traveling the world for the last year without any restrictions? One of the questions you will ask yourself during the visit to the Eugster Gallery and the exhibition “We have Los Angeles at home” by the artist Vuk Ćuk, which will last until March 13. The interactive display, which we love the most, deals with luxury, ecology and transport, as well as the meaning of these terms in the time of the pandemic, but also the global climate crisis. Part of the exhibition are three kinetic sculptures, one of which is an interpretation of the Cybertruck model of a Tesla car that should be realized in reality in 2021 or 2022.

We will also share a part of Natalija Paunić’s text with you which phenomenally describes what can be experienced and what to think about while visiting.

“Everyone’s first thought of Los Angeles must be that of sunlit boulevards laced with palm trees. However, the trees did not originate in Los Angeles. Even though the weather conditions allowed for it to happen naturally, most of the city’s vegetation was moved from other places – corresponding, in a way, with America’s colonial history. But why palm trees? Palms, having rarely grown anywhere in Western territories, became a symbol of something exciting, tropical, oriental, and therefore something a wealthy person could afford, something a white man could enjoy (take Gaugin’s paintings, for example). The idea of an endless holiday is a type of luxury. On the other hand, luxury comes in so many other shapes, Los Angeles offering itself as a picturesque representation of it. City villas, pools, cars, designer objects, organic food, private parties, private planes, a view over Mount Lee. Yet the idea of a plant as a status symbol bears some sort of decadence, perversion even, especially when seen from the 2020 perspective. In regard to the alarming updates on climate change, continuous destruction of natural habitats, new viruses that emerge, literally, with wild animal consumption, nature truly is something precious.”

“Vuk Ćuk has been dealing with luxury from the beginning of his career. Things he wanted to have, things he liked, things that made him happy were a thing of its own; this was money (literally, painted banknotes on paper), Heron Preston socks, Kenzo hats, Kawasaki Ninja. His line of work, however, makes an arc, starting with an exploration into boyish understanding of value and ending at the sedimentation of human activity that created its own geological era, the so-called anthropocene. Thinking about what luxury really is, Los Angeles is both symbolic and real (you may or may not read Lacan into these terms). For Ćuk, L.A. is still, however, imaginary, which started a series of new works made after his travel plans were cancelled, a situation many of us experienced this year. Rather than lamenting over postponed vacations, Vuk Ćuk is looking at the phenomenon of displaced values. Technological achievements, embodied by an interpretation of Tesla Cybertruck, automatically refer to matters of status. Ironically, and yet aptly, Elon Musk’s initiatives to conquer Mars open up the question of luxury once again: to create an artificial air-facilitating surrounding, available only to a single part of the population; in other words, air truly does have a price.”