Illusion is space. It is a permissive kind, you can run in it, walk in it, or standstill. You can do it eyes closed, backward, or on one foot. It is free to look, to create, to pretend in it. You can lie or tell the truth in it. It is free.
Illusion is space, a strict kind. You must not see its boundaries, you must not understand its system, and you must not define it. It should not be confused with reality, and you should not be in it for a long time. You must not believe in it, but not believing in it is stupid. Illusion is free, illusion is a prisoner. The illusion gives freedom, and it gives limits. The illusion is an umbilical cord. It is security, closure, eyes closed.
The exhibition of Ádám Szabó’s class works with two concepts that have become obsolete during their changes of meaning, and have become empty by the 21st century therefore impossible to use them as non-clichés. Freedom, illusion, appearance, reality, truth – we only use them in quotation marks with an ironic emphasis.
We do not dare to redefine this, the works on display are intentionally subjective reflections on our ordinary or large-scale illusions or their absence. They are about the problems of vision, reception, and the relationship between fine arts and illusion.
Art is all about deception: appearances, lies, fiction. And the territory of reality is everything real and true, free from illusion. Or is it vice versa? The desire for illusion is the need to duplicate reality. Or does it create its independent reality? The questions examined by the works of art always examine current artistic dilemmas.
The sculpture department of Ádám Szabó and the second-year curator students worked together for the exhibition. The result of their work is the guestbook, which can also be seen in MAMŰ. You can read their questions and personal experiences about the organization of the exhibition in it, their thoughts about the artistic and curatorial life, fiction about the future of the exhibition, and the project.
Perhaps the most enduring material memory of an exhibition is a phrase scribbled in a guestbook: “We were here.” We will also try to preserve the experience of holding a contemporary art exhibition from 2022 in a guestbook.
Virág Garamvölgyi
Exhibiting artists: Bajgal Dölgön, Dominik Bárdi, Krisztina Bóka, Vanda Burján, Sándor Körei, Lili Zsófia Majoros, Ditta Sarfenstein, Ábel Mihály Sipos, Lilla Judit Sipos, Hajnalka Szabó, Kamilla Szeli, Zsuzsanna Szentpéteri, Zoé Zsandár
Project leaders: József Mélyi art historian, Ádám Szabó artist