Emese Kádár, a visual artist born in Debrecen, explores the process of mourning through the lens of contemporary art in her solo exhibition. While the artist’s earlier works focused on digital memories and contemporary rituals of mourning, the pieces in her new series, titled *Ghost Traces*, approach the process of coming to terms with loss from a more lyrical, personal perspective.
The starting point for the exhibition *The Unrisen Sun // Sun Trapped in Ice* was the experience of a summer visit to a cemetery: the July heat and the blinding sunlight stood in sharp contrast to the frozen, timeless state of mourning. From this experience emerges the exhibition’s peculiar world — at once cold and warm — which depicts the tension between the preservation of memories and the desire to let go.
The series on view at Modem Project Space evokes a symbolic, ice-frozen landscape where the sun and frost appear as opposing forces. Here, sunlight does not necessarily signify clarity or moving forward: its intense light instead blinds us and lingers as a ghostly memory.
In addition to woven textiles, Emese Kádár also experiments with the technique of needle felting. In her works, symbols of digital memory — such as bookmarks, the “save” button, or the play button for audio files — are intertwined with frosty natural elements and symbols of mourning rituals.
The exhibition draws on personal experiences but also raises broader questions about digital heritage and the preservation of memories. Using the example of data centers buried in the permafrost of Svalbard, it asks: what do we preserve at all costs, what do we bury, and what is it time to bring to the surface — and then let go of?