Kiss Miklós

 Kiss Miklós

Miklos's POP&ROLL installation serves as a critique of social media and 'selfie museums.' The installation included nearly 100 artworks and 20 distinctly designed toilets. 

Ironically, I had the wonderful chance to chat with Miklos via Instagram. He told me he was deeply inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirror room. And how in the early 2010s, installations like hers were being experienced differently. This was around the time when the iPhone first launched (2007) and when Instagram first came to be (2010). Miklos said that installations like Kusama's made people want to experience something they could participate in, document, and share. The invention of the iPhone/social media only increased this documentation. All these factors lead to the birth of “selfie museums”. Spaces designed purely for social media aesthetics.

Here is a quote directly from Miklos himself: “The Art Toilet is my ironic commentary on this phenomenon [selfie museums]. I took the bathroom – a universally mundane, often looked-down-upon, and private space – and turned it into the ultimate stage for self-documentation. People go into a restroom to strike poses and photograph themselves, surrounded by ultra-pop art pieces that satirize modern human behavior and the very definition of art.”

(Kiss Miklos on one of the toilets)

So the fact that the bathrooms are fully functional and available for the public to use is really important. The artwork sets up the perfect opportunity for a selfie, while also being in a very unconventional space for a selfie. And this is something that I want to experiment with in my own installation. I want it to be a real space where anyone can become the audience. And it is a space where everyone will have to become the audience at some point.