For the sixth time, we are organising the “one room – one artist – one curator” exhibition at the Kunsthalle. This year, for the first time, we have chosen artists of the same genre: sculpture has become the guiding principle of the exhibition. The initial concept stems from the fact that there is a strong sculptural boom in Hungary today. From organic materials to plastic, from small sculptures to installations, there are fresh examples of almost everything.
It is important to emphasise that we are not presenting a cross-section, but a selection, as the works of six artists cannot provide a complete professional overview. Still, the selected artists employ many thematic and technical solutions that are characteristic of contemporary sculptural endeavours.
In keeping with the original concept of the series, the exhibiting artists were again asked to bring to the Kunsthalle works that were new, freshly made or adapted to the site in an installative way. The aim of the selection is to create an exhibition where the works in the adjacent rooms can enter into dialogue with each other, and where this dialogue or interconnectivity can be experienced by the visitors.
Each of the artists in the exhibition takes a unique approach to the question of tradition and connectivity. This can be a system of relationships based on individual traditions, which can be represented through memory, or a universal sense of connection to cultural traditions. What makes the work of a sculptor bound to traditional forms and materials contemporary?
One means might be, for example, the way in which artists often seek to represent the ideas inherent in their work by showing their earlier work to help interpret and situate the new site-specific sculpture or installation within this field of thought. In this way, their own life journey becomes part of the context. Another such tool can be the theme. By choosing a theme, the artist takes a stance in each case, showing how he sees and where he positions his own work in art history and in the social structure. He expresses his desire to show his vision of the world.
In the present exhibition, there is a strong emphasis on the human figure, both as the subject of representation (motivic) and as the subject of human perception, as he evaluates his own present and past stories and his relationship to the world and nature (self-reflection). Particularly important in the selection, Points of Emphasis, is the representation of the human body as the artist explores the human through his psyche, as he examines the forms of nature, environmental factors and the place and role of living things from a human perspective. Below I would like to introduce in a few words the artists in this year’s selection.
Éva Farkas-Pap’s small-scale sculptures use a variety of modern materials – concrete, porcelain, dental resin, silicone and plastic Lego pieces – to explore her relationship with dystopia and utopia, the impact of play and memory on adulthood.
For Péter Gálhidy, nature is an important source of inspiration. His sculptures emphasise the relationship between visual form and the title that interprets it, interpreting the visual with a subtle irony. He works with classical materials and sculptural techniques, creating large-scale public and indoor sculptures, small sculptures and, in many cases, also makes use of the ready-made medium.
Áron Majoros Zsolt’s art is most characterised by steel works constructed from slices, most often as full-length sculptures built from horizontal and vertical sections. With these works, he also explores the relationship between the material and the immaterial, with a desire to capture transcendence.
Peter Menasági’s sculptures exhibited here reflect his experience of his earlier public works. Each of the three site-specific works in his Melancholy series is given a Pilinsky quote. The positioning of the figures follows the symbol of the trinity, emphasising the layers of meaning in the installation.
Botond Polgár’s sculptures are body evocations, a detail or a moment of a cut-out of existing paintings or sculptures, and are almost all distorted in nature. The works selected for the exhibition are thematically and motivationally interrelated, responding to each other, outlining a creative process, the summation of which is Dead Venus. An attempt to formulate the problems that preoccupy the artist: the confrontation with the finiteness of human existence and the eternal will to leave a trace.
Mamikon Yengibarian seeks a balance to the great questions of life: life – death, good – evil, certainty – uncertainty. Familiar objects, animals, human hands and feet all transcend their primary meaning. His use of materials also reveals the dualism suggested by the combination of poisonous lead and healing beeswax: the sculptor shares in the problems around us, but tries to find a cure for them.
Mária Kondor-Szilágyi