Long Live Dictatorship! is not merely a retrospective summary, but a presentation of a complex, multi-layered artistic universe. Paintings, characters, visual and verbal motifs, and spatial installations form a unity that outlines drMáriás’s unique, instantly recognizable vision. Humor here is not an illustrative element, but a tool: it relieves tension and sharpens it at the same time, while prompting the viewer to engage in continuous reflection.
The exhibition covers 1,100 square meters, the entire space of the Godot Institute. The material on display ranges from early paintings conveying a sense of punk freedom to later works dense with political and historical reflections. Special emphasis is placed on previously unseen paper lace images, as well as his latest paintings, videos, and installations.
“drMáriás’s art works in a total art sense: images, text, music, and gestures reinforce each other to create meaning. For him, humor is not a lighthearted device, but a communication strategy—an entry point into a visual and conceptual space where extremes, vivid colors, provocative verbalism, and irony combine to leave no one indifferent.
It is this constant provocation that makes drMáriás’s art alive, relevant, and indispensable in Hungarian contemporary art.
Borbála Laczkovich