The idea of immortalising this bodily urge in bronze came to Sidén in 1999, when she was recording a film project at Wanås Konst. Wanås is a castle and parkland in the northern parts of Skåne, Sweden. The estate was converted to an art centre in 1987. While working in the park, Sidén found herself needing to answer a call of nature. Sidén made six editions of Fideicommissum and the first one was placed at Wanås.

The title Fideicommissum is a direct commentary on Wanås and the castle’s history as part of the tradition of Swedish aristocratic inheritance. The term fideikommiss denotes an estate that could never be sold legally; the only exchange of ownership could be though inheritance. In Swedish aristocracy, only the first-born son of the family inherited. This institution was ended by the Swedish government in 1964, but the Wanås estate was entailed until 1978. The title, staging and placement of the sculpture right next to the castle makes the artwork a kind of territorial marking and a commentary on gender inequality and power relations. Bare-bottomed, with a tinkle in the grass and a twinkle in her eye, Sidén shows exactly what she thinks about this tradition.

Fideicommissum is especially relevant to the Ekeberg Sculpture Park. From the 1700s onwards, Ekeberg’s main farmhouse was subject to a similar tradition, called stamhus, where the farm was supposed to be inherited in its entirety by the eldest son. It was only as recent as 2005 that this was abolished for this property, even though new inheritance jurisdictions in the stamhus tradition were prohibited in the Constitution of Norway right from start in 1814.