Out of the Sugar Factory

It would be difficult to find a similar substance in which the complexity of human civilization is reflected so precisely - figuratively and literally. It exists in countless chemical forms and compounds, and is the basic building component and energy source of all organisms. Its acquisition, production and trade has its own troubled history associated with colonialism and slavery. At the same time, it is a symbol of consumerism, capitalism and today's division of the world. It is the sweet dainty for coffee, a life-giving substance, a drug and white poison. It is the bearer of collective memory, the fuel and guide of all human activity.

Sugar is the main motif of the book Aus der Zuckerfabrik by Dorothee Elmiger, which is the initial point for the exhibition of the same name by Dominik Adamec. The one with sugar (similar to the book) works as a starting point through which we can view and get to the core of various topics.

The interconnectedness of the exhibition and its literary inspiration is indeed deep. They share a similar "method" or form of communication, which is metonymically represented in the book by the German expression Gestrupp (thicket, or impassable forest), from filosophical point of view a figurative expression for the complexity of facts, concepts, events and relationships between them. Similar to Elmiger, she associatively piles up diary entries and notes related to both personal life (among other things, observations of how sugar affects her personally) and real historical events and gradually assembles fragments from a confusing jumble of information into a comprehensible meaningful whole, Dominik Adamec creates situations and objects whose closer inspection reveals more and more details. They can bring us back to the original entirety, but also refer to another, related topic. Through the impenetrable thicket, from the concrete to the abstract and vice versa.

Through sugar and its fetishizing role in history, we can view not only the history of colonialism and the course of seemingly ever-accelerating progress, but also the essential role of this substance in the human body. Sugar is closely related to the functioning of our organism. On the one hand, it is absolutely necessary, but at the same time it can have a destructive effect. We easily become addicted to it and it stimulates the subconscious and for humans so typical constant hunger.

autor of the text: Michal Jalůvka