Heirloom
Slovenia
2025
In the 1960s, Marija Kobale (Mica) went to a dentist to have a damaged tooth replaced with a gold crown. Decades later, her granddaughter, Lucija Rosc, had the gold melted to cover her own damaged tooth. Lucija, who usually works on her relationship with her grandparents, now devotes this series to her grandmother. Through this work, she explores the family dynamics and memory. The main piece is a performative documentary on the tooth’s journey between Mica’s mouth and Lucija’s. The tooth, which has become a symbolic totem, represents the transmission of the inheritance. By using the gold to restore her own tooth (fifth from bottom left), Lucija enacts a moving succession gesture.
—Text by Hana Čeferin, curator
Portfolio
About the artist
Lucija Rosc, born in 1995, is based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She has a Master’s degree in visual communications and has been nominated for the 2024 OHO prize, the first Slovenian national recognition for young visual artists. In her work, she combines investigation and play, taking inspiration from her childhood memories, her family archives and the environment she grew up in. She has exhibited throughout Europe and in the United States. She is represented by Galerija Fotografija, Slovenia.