Tester

In a crystal flacon of perfume placed under the shower, filled with the most tangible effect of sports people’s effort – their sweat – the ordinary character of the liquid is in sharp contrast with the elegant form in which it was packed. Tester led visitors to the conclusion that athletes’ sweat is no ordinary human secretion; that it means much more because sports people are almost super people, chosen by gods. The title of Karina Marusińska’s installation may be interpreted as a subtle pun. The single flacon sitting on an illuminated plinth may indeed be a tester, as it is known in the perfume jargon. Its content, in turn – male sweat collected in the locker room – is undoubtedly a test, but not of the smell of an exclusive fragrance, but of where the borders of interacting with art lie. The visitors, who are used to the museum-like interaction model ‘look but do not touch’, are encouraged to abandon it – let themselves be sprayed with somebody else’s sweat and let art touch them in the most literal sense.

> Kuba Żary

photos by: Peter Kreibich