GENIEß ES
ENJOY IT
Installation-Happening
40 cm width x 200 cm length x 70 cm heigh
2023
For me, the latrine is an object that represents a rather humble everyday life. They are quite common in the Cuban countryside, and my grandparents' farm and my parents' house are no exception. But what could be everyday for me in Cuba has a completely different relationship to this object in the German context and feels very distant, as if from past historical times. The latrine is a symbol of precariousness, underdevelopment, technological backwardness and, of course, a clear image of the pedestrian and scatological.
My TOI TOI, as I affectionately call them, are influenced by a well-known brand of mobile toilets in Europe to engage in a visual and verbal game between poop and luck. My hybrids are Toi Toi Toi, part latrine, part seat to decorate my new house or galleries; part wish for good omens for my future as an emigrant, part reminder of my roots.
Paradoxically, in many cultures it is believed, as in Cuba, that stepping in shit brings good luck for the future. Shit and luck are somehow connected in my country. So much so that the number 7, considered lucky in some cultures, has one of its meanings associated with feces in the Cuban Charada: 7 snail, dream, feces, socks, gentleman and pig. My happiness, my destiny and my success in the future as an emigrant seem to have to do with feces.
As antagonistic as it may seem, to win you have to get dirty and sacrifice. Toi Toi Toi is what many German friends wish me when I tell them about my dreams and goals for my future here, TOI TOI .... Toi, I always think when I see a mobile toilet on the streets of Halle (Saale).
The play on words between the brand of mobile toilets TOI TOI and the wish the traditional German style good luck wish Toi Toi Toi.