About the Hungarian
pavilion Hungary has taken part at the International Art Exhibition of Venice
since its inception in 1895.
Before its own
exhibition facility (pavilion) opened for the 8th Biennale (1909), Hungary had
featured its artists at a venue provided by the organizers of the event. The
practice has been maintained ever since, and several newly founded countries
are to this day presented in some of Venice’s palaces.
The success of
Hungarian art at the international exhibitions of Turin (1902) and Milan (1906)
went a long way towards influencing decision-makers to establish the Hungarian
pavilion. It was designed by Géza Maróti, an eminent Art Nouveau architect, and
its ornamentation was contributed by two artists of the Gödöllő colony, Sándor
Nagy and Aladár Körösfői Kriesch. Over its history of more than a century, the
pavilion was renovated on a number of occasions, and continues to serve its
original function. Since it was first organized, Hungary has been present
continuously at the International Art Exhibition of Venice, with a few short
hiatuses. Its greatest recognition to date has been the Golden Lion for the
best national pavilion in 2007, awarded to Andreas Fogarasi’s video
installation, Kultur und Freizeit (curator: Katalin Timár).
About the concept
grace – terror –
(in) memory (of)
Each bomb has its
own story. Which is essentially one of two kinds. Bombs may explode and thus fulfil
their role as objects made specifically for the purpose of destruction, and
then enter history books and the personal histories that families maintain.
Zsolt Asztalos in
his turn looks into another possible story in the installation he has created
for the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice: the story of the
malfunctioning device which stays with us, generating, interpreting and
symbolizing conflicts among humans. In what semantic fields can these
destructive objects, these relics of wars waged and raging, these latent
carriers of a constant threat, be interpreted, asks Asztalos. His “found
objects” are multiple representations of conflict situations, open to
simultaneous interpretations on personal, local, regional and global levels.
An unexploded
bomb makes a statement. It thinks. Motionless. Mathematically. The process
frozen by chance devours time. They are manifestations of a state of grace. The
machine that was created to destroy man left its original function, and went on
(may go on) to write the history of hu•manity on its own, creating personal
myths and narratives which may make the inexplicable, if not interpretable, at
least relatable. It is with its own disorders that technicized society creates
an opportunity for mystery to work—while denying its very existence. Their
fault or “unnatural” behaviour extends the temporal dimensions of the
conflicts, even reveal them as timeless.
The theoretical
approaches, as well as the research and installation praxes of the visual arts
have been instrumental in processing the brutal traumas of the late 20th and
21th centuries. It shows that bloody genocides occur in the name and shadow of
false slogans about humanism.
They were dropped
but did not explode. What has become of them? How did they determine the future,
our future? These are the questions that Asztalos’s installation makes us
ponder on, rigorously, in all their ramifications.
Fired but
unexploded – A video installation by Zsolt Asztalos
55th
International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, 2013
Hungarian
Pavilion, Giardini di Castello, Venice
1 June–24
November, 2013
Curator:
Gabriella Uhl
National
commissioner: Gábor Gulyás
Organization:
István Puskás – Biennale Office, Műcsarnok, Budapest
Exhibition
opening: 30 May, 2013, 10.30 am
Opening speech
by: Zoltán Balog, Minister for National Resources
Featuring: Félix
Lajkó, violin
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