Porn Video (2004) finds Anetta Mona Chișa and Lucia Tkáčová engaged in a simulated sexual act. Sleazy moans, hair pulling, lip biting, eyes rolling, aggressive pelvic thrusts and slaps are part of an explosive display of lust in which the artists seem to have lost control. The poor image and plunged angles emphasize the gonzo aesthetic. Anetta Mona Chișa and Lucia Tkáčová seem to be taking turns at performing “the man.” Despite the two female protagonists, this sexual stimulation has a distinctive heterosexual air. Is it the artists’ carefully put together looks? Or rather their incongruous moves? With grotesque undertones and humorous accents, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkáčová deconstruct the so-called “ultimate male fantasy.” Bojana Pejić discovers the subversion of two basic motives in their works: the narcissistic drive for self-representation and the condition of “to-be-looked-at-ness.” By appropriating these two principles, they apply the strategies of masquerade and excess, playfully crossing the identification of femininity and sexuality. Ever since it was first presented twelve years ago in Bratislava, the video has had tremendous success and is often shown in queer and gender themed exhibitions. According to the artists, the work also triggers many interpretations at a spectrum additional to the feminist exegesis, surpassing the patriarchal reality of the Eastern European sex industry and its constructions.
Anetta Mona Chişa & Lucia Tkáčová have been working in collaboration since 2000. Their solo presentations include, among others, Rotwand gallery, Zurich (2016), GAK, Bremen (2015), waterside contemporary, London (2013), Art in General, New York (2013), Christine Koenig Gallery, Vienna (2011), 54th Venice Biennale Romanian Pavilion (with I. Grigorescu) (2011), n.b.k., Berlin (2008). They have participated in group shows at Centre d’Art Contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux (2016), Galleria Civica, Trento (2014), Manifesta 10 (2014), 3rd Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2012) and ZKM | Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe (2011).