Two Families of Objects

“There exist two types of objects. The first are ‘beautiful’ – desirable and, more often than not, beyond our immediate means. Into this group come such things as armchairs, lamps, gardens, motorboats and swimming pools. The viewer enjoys looking at them and would like to own them. Even though you might not be able to buy a motorboat outright, you can think about buying one, and who knows, perhaps one day... ?

Then there is the second type – ‘ugly’ objects, into which grouping belongs such things as a crane, cement mixer, mechanical lathe, cement mortar tub or hydraulic press (these actually are very beautiful, even more beautiful than the first group of objects, but the viewer doesn’t know it). Because these things are ugly and rather inaccessible, they are also undesired; when exhibited at a trade fair, their aimlessly turning wheels and blades thrusting into empty space look strange and dysfunctional ... the trade fair visitor would not choose to own them. In reality, he has not chosen; he has only accepted his role as a consumer of consumer goods since he can not be the proprietor of the means of production. But he is content. Tomorrow he will work harder so that he can buy the cozy armchair and refrigerator. He will go back to work on the turning lathe, which doesn’t belong to him, and which he has no interest in owning.”

So explains Umberto Eco in his essay Two Families of Objects, published in 1970 following his visit to the Milan Trade Fair. Even though this essay is colored by its time, we can read into it parallels to the contemporary situation in Central Europe, where the chapter on the economic transformation from a strict socialist to a liberal capitalistic system is gradually coming to a close.

In 2001, my mother, Jiřina Skálová, received the turning lathe, on which she had worked for close to 22 years, as a present on her 50th birthday. My father Jaroslav Skála bought it for her from the factory where she had worked, which was going bankrupt and was selling off all its equipment to pay its debts to the bank. The factory managed to make it through the early transformation process of the 1990s, but at the beginning of the new century it evidently ran out of breath. My father decided to insure their future by purchasing the turning lathe Đ equipment that would allow them to continue to keep on working and earning.

I asked my mother to photograph this unusual present and to give me the photograph.

After this I got to know from my parents, that there are other people who have found themselves in similar situations - those who have purchased the production equipment, on which they had worked most of their lives during the communist regime, from now defunct companies and producers. I have sougth out them and i ask each new owner to photograph the machinery themselves and give it to me. The final product is a series of photographs named after that essay Two Familis of Objects. The series include 14 color photograph, 50 x 40 cm big and there are in a plexiglass frames.