The Marquês de Pombal public toilet is under a bandstand located in a lively public garden in central Porto. Here old men gather during the day to talk and play cards. At night, drug dealers and prostitutes take over the place.
This collaborative piece uses sound and a flickering light box. The smelly man’s toilet is covered in pink marble and has no direct sun light except the one coming from the door.
For this piece we have substituted the toilet’s mirror by a light box of 39X39 cm. The image shows a young man with red eyes that looks at you intensively but which eyes are unfixed (slow shutter speed). The light from the light box is the only light source in the space and when for a short moment it goes off the all space becomes empty just to be filled again by the image of the man.
The original surround sound is of a strongly emotional instrumental music that combines sounds of water dripping, rain and birds flying, sounds which were previously recorded in the garden.
WC, with Eric Many, site specific work, men’s public toilet of Marquês garden and square in Porto, part of the project WC Invicta Public’Arte, a project including various interventions by artists in public toilets of the city of Porto.
Light box with photograph in duratran 39 x 39 cm with neon flickering light. Hidden loud speakers with original sound.
Curator: João Lima /Sentidos Grátis.
