Zsófia Csomay
WHAT IF ( Imagine…) – exhibition opening text
Motto:
"I'm happy with, slight exaggeration"
I don't care about "slight exaggeration", I care about happiness only. Not just Kinga but I too am
happy with what is happening and can be seen here. It is great that there are women and men
who, right in the middle of harsh reality, are able to create a peculiar reality of their own, into
which we can now have an insight through images – objects – words – love.
The poem, the sound becomes an object – the object becomes a word, a sound, a special
message. In its fragmentation, it receives a new life. And the spirit of the characters is all over
the place. They talk about birth, death, work, and construction.
“The supremacy of objects is so pervasive that they have always been able to project the most
ultimate Still Image behind the versions. They are the Enchanted of Existence. And their space is
the most endless cul-de-sac in which movement can lock itself. The nervous and restless light –
the spirit – that "separates them from the night" is, in fact, homeless – a hobo, running in the sky
– compared to them. And in the meantime, this spirit tries to instil the exceptional calmness of
the objects into its exceptional superiority."
Ágnes Nemes Nagy
The material exhibited here is somewhat different from what we have seen so far. So are the
place and the message. As though the members of a big family were Morse-coding to each other.
As though the protagonist was stuttering a little bit. However, when he finds his scribe, his
tongue gets loosened.
"When I write, I always gain strength when I talk about something, when I try to refer to
something that I know nothing about. Art is inherently about the "uncertain". If I am certain, I do
not like to write anymore. Still, one must, of course. Unfortunately. It would be beautiful if, while
writing we could see the light – like the light of a flashlight – for ourselves from word to word,
from sentence to sentence and in this way we could grasp what becomes exactly what it is, thanks
to our revelations. Our cleverness, our predispositions, our obsessions, our beliefs, our
overzealous imagination, however, illuminate the way ahead with a searchlight... We must turn
into God inexorably. We have to make the world, not reveal it. I desire nothing more than to
exist with a clear mind – if only for a few moments – without memory. And then to recall this,
juxtaposed with my cleverness, my predispositions, etc. To be realistic – as much as possible:
subjectivise with a flashlight, not a searchlight. Let's be humble."
Miklós Mészöly
Kinga's entire being is extraordinary. Everything that bears the imprint of her hand and soul is
magical. They cannot be pigeonholed into any kind of behaviour scheme – not to say: style.
She comprises a base in the aggressive visual world that surrounds us. I met her more than thirty
years ago at MOME – Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design – (née College of Arts).
During her master's course, she designed a beautiful glass wall and gate for a student architect’s
project of the gypsy church in the village of Hodász. Already back then, you could see that we
were dealing with an outlaw girl. Since then we have not lost sight of each other. A few years
later, she created two amazingly beautiful column capitals in the foyer of the Hotel Art in Királyi
Pál Street, which recolours the atmosphere of the entire interior. Unfortunately, it was not
possible to work together later, because she left Budapest. (By the way, the building was
awarded Pro-Architectura Prize.) Since then, I have only been watching Kinga's magical, but not
uneventful, journey from afar.
I'm glad I could say this here. Finally: I would like to sing a folk song related to the motto by
János Pilinszky "The bed is shared. The pillow is not." to Anna T. Szabó’s poem "Brick, Bed”
(Tégla, Ágy).
Before the exhibition opens, what if I publicly congratulate Kinga and Péter on their 130 th
birthday.
