The title of the exhibition focuses on the space mission to Mercury, the innermost and most mysterious planet in the solar system, which has been ongoing for years. The spacecraft, designed for scientific exploration of the planet, was launched in 2018 and was originally scheduled to enter orbit at the end of 2025. For seven years, it has been working towards its goal of obtaining photos and data from Mercury for the third time in the history of space exploration.
Even the ancient Sumerians, Greeks and Romans were observing the planet, visible to the naked eye from Earth. It can be seen twice a day, at dawn and dusk, and is named after Mercurius, the Roman equivalent of Hermes, the Greek gods’ swaddled messenger, because of its rapid motion.
The Greco-Roman god, known as the patron saint of merchants and travellers, is associated with all activities that require ingenuity, resourcefulness and good persuasion. Apollo’s lute was also made by Hermes, who stretched the strings of the turtle’s hollow shell. The mythological story of Mercury has inspired many later centuries, with many commercial companies, products and creativity-building toys using the Mercury brand.
However, his attributes, the winged hat and winged horn symbolising his agility, and the caduceus, a double serpentine messenger’s staff ending in wings, emphasise his spiritual power. He walks freely between the divine and human spheres, and is associated with the balancing and reconciliation of the opposites in the world.
The duality of the external world to be known and the human scale is summed up in the exhibition’s interpretation of Mercury. Dimensional shifts and different scales are expressed through a wide variety of artworks and genres – paintings, sculptures, photographs, sound and video installations. In this particular context, the role, the insight, the intellectual and spiritual power of the artist is also enhanced. One of the curiosities of the exhibition comes from the United States. Viktor Lois’s latest instrumental sculpture, After Nirvana, summing up more than thirty years of experience, is on display for the first time in Hungary.