Mania

In the exhibition titled Mania. Quiet Strategies, the artists Emese Benczúr, Mariann Imre, Kamilla Szíj, Henrietta Szira and Hajnalka Tarr present several of their new and old works, which offer a novel perspective and set of artistic tools of mania. In their lives and work, mania has by now become a conscious standpoint for these artists. It is a creative strategy for survival against the world. Action saturated with mania leaves time for analysis and building self-defence reflexes.

One of the building blocks of mania is the contrast between the outside world and the artistic process: confronting the immediacy of a world of instant, uncritical responses with attentive, inward-looking observership, thus creating an inner space.

This inner space is the place where one can slow down and contemplate by retreating from the realm of unsophisticated like-dislike responses. In this inner space each movement is accentuated; a positive feedback; a testimonial: it must be continued.

The self reflective works of Benczúr, Imre, Szíj, Szira and Tarr share the same, increasingly difficult to implement future vision. They point to a growing need for slower, more reflective, activities that allow for increased intent, engagement, quietness and reflection.