Photo credit: Szabolcs Süli-Zakar
ACCUMULATION / CONSIDERATION OF VALUES
Participants: Ursula Palla (Zürich, CH), Zsófia Szemző (Budapest ,HU), Szabolcs Süli-Zakar (Debrecen, HU), Mark Vennegoor (Amsterdam, NL)
Curator: Hanneke Frühauf
July 7 at 6 PM - 8 PM
2B Gallery
ACCUMULATION / CONSIDERATION OF VALUES
Participants: Ursula Palla (Zürich, CH), Zsófia Szemző (Budapest ,HU), Szabolcs Süli-Zakar (Debrecen, HU), Mark Vennegoor (Amsterdam, NL)
Curator: Hanneke Frühauf
"Sustainability, responsible handling of the environment, modern slavery and global trade are increasingly in focus of the discussions on social development and are addressed by visual artists, writers, and philosophers.
In this exhibition is the principle of collecting a common aspect of the presented artworks. Ursula Palla collects thoughts and words in books and the associated libraries. Mark Vennegoor collects driftwood on the Danube, Szabolcs Süli-Zakar accumulates unused objects that lost their function and Zsófia Szemző tries to capture light in a prism to focus on a moment that will provide us a short experience of the unbearable lightness of being. Our society is based on the enormous collection of lived life, memories and relicts from the past." Hanneke Frühauf
Ursula Palla will show a video and audio installation called: „White books”. Books are falling from the ceiling to the ground and while falling, they lose their lyrics and stories. The entire content of the overturning writings is compressed into a tonal collage and can be heard as a fleeting, incomprehensible whisper. In this video Ursula Palla refers to the destruction of libraries, which results in a negative change of attitude towards knowledge and culture in the age of the so called “fake news“. In addition, the work refers to the endangered schools and educational centres worldwide –centres of knowledge, dialogue and exchange.
Her video installation Balance II illustrates a man in a suit balancing on a wire. The sequence is projected into a box that became the insignia of today’s “hire-and-fire” management mentality and is addressing our daily balancing act in a complex globalized world.
Mark Vennegoor is travelling from Switzerland to Budapest following the Inn and the Danube rivers to Budapest. During his trip, he will collect driftwood which will be used for building an installation in the 2b gallery.
He will also present imprints from the water springs created during his artist residency at NAIRS, a contemporary art centre in the Swiss mountains. These healing water springs played a vital role in the touristic and economic development of Engadin starting at the end of the 19th century. Since then, flourishing times did alternate with times of decline, which were often caused by external influence. One of them was the upcoming pharmacy industry, by which the magical effect of the healing sources lost their significance. Although the economic value of the healing sources is subject to cyclical fluctuations, the sources are constantly flowing. Inspired by this thought, Mark decided to make prints on table linen of hotels, resulting in a unique collection of prints and sculptures like “selfies” of the water sources and the river.
Zsófia Szemző presents her new work “Blinded by light”. She accumulates faces on ink drawings and polaroid pictures, where light breaks through a prism into colour around the eyes of people. The question arises: Is the face enlightened or blinded by the light? She is questioning the origins of what and how we see, or look at things. In her latest video from the “Risk” video series, Szemző drifts in idyllic surroundings in shallow water on a self-made raft constructed from trash.
Szabolcs Süli Zakar's Photo series “Accumulation” shows several things grouped together or considered as a whole (geography, biology). Due to the multitude of the same or similar objects, the original meaning of certain objects is modified (art). Especially, if it was filled with personal content during its former usage.
Hanneke Frühauf, curator: board member of Res Artis, a worldwide artists in residency network 1999 to 2007, curator in the Foundation Binz39 (Zürich, CH)1992-2002 , co-founder of Dutchartedesk.ch 2004, 2010 founder of the foundation Powerstation Art http://www.powerstationart.ch/ that is an interdisciplinary exchange project between Switzerland and the Netherlands, where the essential element is to show the children the importance of the use of one’s own creativity in our complex society.
Since 2004 Hanneke Frühauf is also curator of Bridge Guard, an artist in residence located in Štúrovo, Slovakia (http://www.bridgeguard.org/) and AquaPhone performance festival in Štúrovo (Slovakia) since 2006.
