Little death

A selection of works by students of the MKE József Gaál - Patrick Tayler class

25. November 2023. – 06. December
MegnyitóOpening: November 24, 2023, 6:00 pm
MegnyitjaRemarks by: Tayler Patrick
KurátorCurator: Kozák Gábor

The French term “La petite mort”, meaning “little death”, was used as a synonym for love ecstasy, but as the language changed, it took on new meanings. A curious change that places us on the threshold of a different sphere of existence, a momentary glimpse of what really surrounds us, but a complete existence, a dissolution, would paradoxically involve the disappearance of the self.

In any case, it is a question of a rupture being created, of a previous state of being momentarily eliminating another.

“Disease” is not a strong enough word. At that moment the personality dies. Its death at that moment gives place to the bitch who takes advantage of the silence, the absence of the dead.”- Bataille

According to Bataille, everyday life is a continuous interruption, whereas the natural state of man is continuity. Ritual, death, sacrifice and erotic union give him a sense of completeness. He experiences this only for a moment, then falls back into tragic discontinuity.

This opens up the possibility of a new approach to the concept of death. In his book Own Death, Péter Nádas writes: ‘There could be no mundane object, nor did I seek one in which I could feel the infinite rapture for which I always yearned in the bodily existence I shared with others. I never achieved it.”

Exhibitors: Arnóth Anka, Bálint Norbert-László, Bokody Ákos, Csontos Orsolya, Horváth Zsanna, Kasza Viktória K., Kiss Kata, Kollár Noémi, Kovács Lili, Kármán Virág, Nagy Eszter, Palágyi Bálint Sándor, Pintér Viktória, Polner Eszter, Szécsi Ödön, Talpai Szandra