R. thinking/ dreaming about overpopulation

16. June 2004. – 02. July
MegnyitóOpening: June 15, 2004, 6:00 pm
KurátorCurator: Hegyi Dóra
Róza El-Hassan s work R. dreams about overpopulation, is one of those rare conceptual/action pieces that searches for a response to the issues of political reality, social awareness and identity by means of radical aesthetic autonomy. El-Hassan s radicalism is aesthetic; her politics, however, seek to create forms of quest, co-operative thinking and dialogue. (We all need advice.) In other words, what we see here is political art that, rather than seeking and creating forms for the sake of a clearly identifiable commitment, searches for artistic methods that analyse political commitment via art. Róza El-Hassan s art proves that on rare occasions political iconography is not merely open to question but can even be radically criticised in the world of aesthetics, while the metapolitical work of art forces us to carry on dialogues and to be boldly sincere. Róza El-Hassan is a master of gentle pressure of this kind, and this complex work is a masterpiece of such gentle enforcement: a terrible temptation to be good.
Péter György

This repeatedly twisted viewpoint, which effectively liberalizes the overburdened visual signs, is ironic yet not cynical. The artist draws attention to the necessity of taking up a moral position, and implicitly to its complexity, in a world in which this can be accomplished only with difficulty. This is because representation, as part of the power structure, can never be neutral, even when it appropriates a so-called universal value in our case the giving of blood. The reading established by El-Hassan conveys an explicit political message in Belgrade, Budapest and Zurich alike. It pleads the urgent necessity of a collectivism situated outside of dogmas one that links all of us regardless of race, gender or confession.
Emese Süvecz