Mermaid Tea Party

It is no question that the vital element of Zita Nagy’s work and art is Kitsch, with big letters. Golden table made of imitation marble, nauseous crowd of porcelaine figures, shiny mirrors, horses running on the sea-side, rainbow-coloured chairs with red roses, kittens and hearts… Only a few of the decorative elements of the installation.

Zita Nagy undertook the quest of finding the most surreal and most ‘sweet’ item of Kitsch, beyond which there is nothing more ‘beautiful’. Indeed, after several months of designing and executing, all of the motives of this carefully elaborated work, planned to the last detail, propagate the triumph of beauty. The whole work is to be interpreted as a stream of overflowing beauty, where the attention of the surprised spectator is constantly captured by the always newly discovered motives. Interaction has an important role too as the „I love you” chairs have the special function of assisting the unfolding partnerships.

To see the exhibition, the spectator will have to follow the very thin borderline between art and ‘anti-art’, surrounded by questions and doubts. What is it that differentiates the professional from the amateur artist and what is it that makes a decorated furniture an art w ork to be exhibited in a Gallery? How is it possible to legitimize such a work in the context of high-quality art?