This is the Trekka
2003In 2003 »This is the Trekka« was presented as the second only ever New
Zealand pavilion at the Biennale of Venice. With this in mind the pavilion
became a contemporary reflection on an unusual cold war story. The project
itself takes as its central motif, the Trekka - the only New Zealand mass-produced
automobile - and teases out the eccentricities of the partnership that
brought this vehicle into being.
Produced between 1966 and 1972 by NZ private enterprise and the state
run Czech manufacturer Motokov this adventurous partnership becomes a
precursor to the more globalised situations we see today. At the time
however both these nations were still economically tied to their respective
motherlands. Automobile manufacturing was, during the cold war, considered
a nation building exercise: a national car equated to a working national
economy. Local producers were therefore guided in the hope that this benchmark
of industrialisation would further consolidate their nation’s first world
status.
There were less than 3,000 units ever produced. The vehicle’s unusual
production cycle was a denial of Fordist standards of mass production.
Skoda chassis’ and mechanicals were simply imported into New Zealand where
locally fabricated steel bodies were then bolted on. Performance was also
questionable: designed to look like a 4WD the Trekka was emphatically
not. In the end this very basic concept for a national car, produced with
rudimentary technology found its own supporters, not in the first world
but amongst African and Asian nations.
The story contained within this vehicle of a nationalism that celebrated
both private enterprise and state control became a point of contemplation
for another adventurous public/private partnership with nation building
aspirations: NZ’s own Venice initiative. In exhibition the project’s centrepiece
was a fully restored, working Trekka, surrounding the vehicle were objects
and images that highlighted key economic, industrial and cultural moments.
related: TrekkaWorld
50th
Biennale of Venice, New Zealand pavilion, La Maddalena, Cannaregio
12.06.03 – 02.11.03
City
Gallery Wellington, New Zealand »Small World, Big Town« (group exhibition)
25.09.05 – 20.11.05
publication title: »This
is the Trekka«
