Outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, attached to the modernistic landmark architecture, a padlock is fixed to a metal fencing. Around it, hundreds of similar padlocks are attached. All of them are engraved with the type of sworn compassion that is mandatory for these tokens of love. This newest padlock addition, on the touristic gathering of I-Was-Here’s, reads somewhat differently than the others: ‘FACTORY WORKERS UNITE’.
FACTORY WORKERS UNITE (Padlock) is part of an ongoing investigation of the cultural, cognitive and social factory, in which the factory floor is replaced by museum spaces, reading ­rooms, lecture halls, sports arenas, political assemblies, holiday retreats, family structures, cybernetic-networks, selfies, bloggers and self-consumers. Furthermore FACTORY WORKERS UNITE (Padlock) is a political public art piece cunningly added and firmly attached to the museum – an uninvited addition to the permanent collection.
FACTORY WORKERS UNITE (Padlock) is a part of an ongoing investigation of the cultural, cognitive and social factory, in which the factory floor is replaced by museum spaces, reading rooms, lecture halls, sports arenas, political assemblies, holiday retreats, family structures, cybernetic-networks, selfies, bloggers and self-consumers. FACTORY WORKERS UNITE is a collaboration with visual artist Soren Thilo Funder.